Oil prices plunged down today to $47 before settling at $47.25. The prices for light sweet crude as OPEC regains control over the market from speculators who drove prices up over $58 a barrel in early April. Brent North Sea crude was down $1.19 cents at $48.15.

Today oil reports from the U.S. Dept. of Energy halted an early morning climb to just over $49 a barrel when they announced U.S. inventories climbed 4.3 million barrels to 334 million barrels and gasoline stocks going up 1.1 million barrels. Oil inventories are there highest levels since 1999 when Bill Clinton was president.

The swell in inventories mark a concerted effort by OPEC to drive market prices down. They continue to pump the highest levels of oil in 25 years at over 30 million bpd. Saudi Arabia has guaranteed more oil and an increase in production in the coming months.

Buy All You Like, We’ll Pump More

The Saudis have also promised to keep the levels jacked up to deal with the upcoming fourth quarter. “One of the reasons inventories are built is to anticipate fourth-quarter demand. In the fourth quarter, there’s no question that production will increase,” Reuters reported Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi saying.

”I stand here to tell you that Saudi Arabian reserves are plentiful, and we stand ready to raise output as the market dictates,” Naimi said at an energy confidence in Washington on Tuesday.

Despite drops in crude prices and increases in gasoline inventory, gas prices remained steady today settling at $1.42 a gallon. Prices at the pump still remain high on the average as GasPriceWatch.com reports that the national average runs at $2.07 a gallon.

John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.