1st LD Writethru: Oil prices plunge on worries about weak demand

Oil prices plummeted Thursday as concerns persisted that demand is not strong enough to ease the supply glut.

The downbeat job data continued to weigh on the crude prices. U. S. private sector employment increased by 169,000 jobs in April compared with the previous month, well below market expectations of 200,000, according the April ADP National Employment Report released on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude supplies of last week decreased 3.9 million barrels to 487 million, 89.5 million barrels more than a year earlier, said Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its weekly report Wednesday.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the U. S. contract lost 12,000 barrels to 61.67 million barrels. U.S. crude production retreated 4,000 barrels to 9.369 million barrels a day.

U.S. rig count continued to drop last week, according to oil service company Baker Hughes. Analysts believed that low crude prices forced U.S. shale oil producers to slow down the output.

ight, sweet crude for June delivery moved down 1.99 U.S. dollars to settle at 58.94 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent North Sea crude for June delivery, the global benchmark, lost 2.23 dollars to close at 65. 54 dollars a barrel. Endite