NEW YORK -- Crude oil futures closed lower on Friday as U.S. Treasury Department said it would lend funds to the auto industry after a rescue plan went aborted in the Senate on Thursday night.
The collapse of the auto bailout plan had escalated fears that a worsening recession will hurt energy demand.
The Bush administration said on Friday that it will consider its options to save the U.S. automobile industry, including tapping the 700 billion dollars in funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Crude oil for January delivery fell 1.70 dollars to end at 46.28 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile.
General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. failed to secure 14 billion dollars in emergency loans after efforts collapsed in the Senate late Thursday. The Senate rejected the bailout 52-35 on a procedural vote.
Further fueling the bearish sentiment, Goldman Sachs -- which had once predicted 200-dollar-a-barrel oil -- slashed its average price forecast for 2009 to 45 dollars a barrel from a prior projection of 80 dollars.
OPEC is widely expected to agree on a cut in member nations' quotas at its meeting next Wednesday in Oran, Algeria. In October, the oil cartel announced a production cut of 1.5 million barrels a day, but left output levels unchanged at its November meeting.
The collapse of the auto bailout plan had escalated fears that a worsening recession will hurt energy demand.
The Bush administration said on Friday that it will consider its options to save the U.S. automobile industry, including tapping the 700 billion dollars in funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Crude oil for January delivery fell 1.70 dollars to end at 46.28 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile.
General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. failed to secure 14 billion dollars in emergency loans after efforts collapsed in the Senate late Thursday. The Senate rejected the bailout 52-35 on a procedural vote.
Further fueling the bearish sentiment, Goldman Sachs -- which had once predicted 200-dollar-a-barrel oil -- slashed its average price forecast for 2009 to 45 dollars a barrel from a prior projection of 80 dollars.
OPEC is widely expected to agree on a cut in member nations' quotas at its meeting next Wednesday in Oran, Algeria. In October, the oil cartel announced a production cut of 1.5 million barrels a day, but left output levels unchanged at its November meeting.
