Oil prices receded following a jump in US heating fuel stocks that has eased worries of a possible supply shortage during the northern hemisphere winter, analysts said. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, dropped 23 cents to 57.09 usd per barrel in electronic dealing. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery slid 37 cents to 54.68 usd per barrel. The US Energy Department said yesterday that inventories of distillate supplies, which are used to make heating oil and diesel fuel, had risen by 3.4 mln barrels to 127.9 mln during the week ended Nov 25. That compared with analysts' predictions of a 613,000-barrel rise. Elsewhere, crude stocks fell by 4.2 mln barrels last week to 317.6 mln barrels -- data that had caused prices to climb briefly on Wednesday. "Despite the fall in crude stocks they are still 29 mln barrels higher than year-ago levels, and with heating oil stocks also healthily in surplus we feel that, in the absence of any colder than usual weather, the market is set to head lower," analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said. Gasoline, or petrol reserves, fell by 500,000 barrels to 199.9 mln barrels last week, the DoE added, despite predictions of an increase of 1.1 mln barrels.