NEW YORK - Oil prices slipped Thursday as investors questioned whether the country would ever regain its appetite for petroleum.

Benchmark crude for December delivery gave up 23 cents to $80.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for December delivery fell 19 cents to $78.70 on the ICE Futures exchange.

While the economy has shown signs of recovery, economists, including those at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, have predicted that world energy demand will continue to slide as automakers build cars with better mileage and countries embrace alternative fuels.

That assessment, combined with Energy Information Administration data that showed a drop in oil imports last week, helped push crude prices lower.

"The good news we're hearing about the economy is not translating to a stronger oil market yet," said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.

The Labor Department said Thursday that productivity increased and the number of people seeking unemployment benefits for the first time dropped to the lowest level in 10 months. Still, analysts continued to focus on weak oil imports and tepid consumer demand.

The EIA also reported Thursday that the country continues to sit on an ever-expanding natural gas stockpile that keeps breaking records for the largest on record. As of last week, 3.79 trillion cubic feet of natural gas had been crammed into storage.

Natural gas is a key energy source for power plants around the country, and a large buildup in supplies provides yet another example that factories and other businesses are struggling to ramp up their operations.

At the pump, retail gas prices slid by less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.682 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.

A gallon of regular unleaded is 22.1 cents more expensive than a month ago and 31.7 cents more expensive than last year.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell less than a penny at $2.0831 a gallon. Gasoline for December delivery added less than a penny at $2.0143 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery rose 11 cents to $4.835 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

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