Oil price lowest since Oct. 25

NEW YORK - Crude-oil prices dipped yesterday to their lowest levels in more than a month, falling below $89 a barrel as investors sold amid signs of weakening demand and expectations that OPEC would boost production next week.

The slide in oil may mean consumers will see relief at the pump soon, analysts said.

It was quite a turnaround for crude, which began the week pushing $100 a barrel but ended it by falling to the lowest level since Oct. 25.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $2.30 to settle at $88.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Crude prices are more than $10 below Monday's high of $99.11 a barrel and the all-time high of $99.29 a barrel set last week. Prices continued falling yesterday after the Nymex closed, dropping as low as $88.45 in electronic trading.

Oil's downturn is good news for consumers, who will likely see lower gasoline prices in coming days, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

"We're looking at [gasoline prices] backing off quite a bit," he said.

Gasoline slid 0.8 cents to a national average of $3.088 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices have been flat the last two weeks after rising steadily for a month as oil approached $100 a barrel.

Gasoline prices could fall back to mid-October levels, when they averaged about $2.76 a gallon, Kloza said.

Oil has been pressured in recent days by evidence that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is raising output and by expectations that OPEC members will agree at a meeting next week to raise production further. Tepid domestic demand also has brought prices down.

U.S. demand for oil is at its lowest level since April 2006, Addison Armstrong, an analyst at TFS Energy Futures L.L.C. in Stamford, Conn., said in a research note.