LONDON, April 24: World oil prices fell on profit-taking on Monday after New York crude mirrored its record high point on concerns over the Iranian nuclear crisis and tight supplies of US motor fuel.
Also on Monday, Opec decided to keep its crude output steady and blamed the market frenzy on political tension and lack of refining capacity.
New York crude had touched $75.35 per barrel in Asian electronic trade on Monday — which was identical to the all-time high set last Friday.
Also on Friday, London’s Brent crude had climbed to a historic peak of $74.79.
On Monday at 1625 GMT, New York’s new main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, slid 1.22 dollars to 73.95 dollars per barrel in pit dealing.
The price of Brent North Sea crude for June delivery lost 66 cents to $73.84 per barrel in electronic trade.
“It’s just a bit of profit-taking after the weekend,” Calyon analyst Mike Wittner said of the fall in prices on Monday.
He added that the trend for this week would be “stable” after the recent meteoric rise.
“We had such a big run-up in the last couple of weeks that the market is going to want to consolidate and pause to figure out what happens next,” Wittner said.—AFP
