Venoco (VQ) (NOG) (CPE) (GEOI) (APA) Trade Down on Slowing Oil Demand

Oil companies and other industry-related companies Venoco Inc. (NYSE:VQ), Northern Oil and Gas (Amex:NOG), Callon Petroleum (NYSE:CPE), GeoResources (NASDAQ:GEOI) and Apache Corp (NYSE:APA) all closed down Wednesday as oil prices took a breather.

Oil prices dropped after a government report showed that inventories are growing as demand softens in the U.S. Benchmark crude for June delivery was down $1.81 to settle at $109.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other NYMEX trading for June contracts, heating oil fell 4.78 cents to settle at $3.143 a gallon, gasoline futures lost 0.69 cent to $3.3225 a gallon and natural gas was lower by 9.4 cents to $4.644 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The U.S. dollar index shrunk 0.15 percent to $73.01, down from Tuesday's 73.127 close. The dollar index has fallen 7.5 percent so far in 2011.

Northern Oil and Gas (NOG) closed Wednesday at $20.65, falling $1.60, or 7.19 percent.