Natural Gas Drags Crude Oil Down
Oil prices closed down from a one-month high in New York Thursday, dragged down by a drop in natural-gas prices.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery slipped 84 cents or 1.44 percent to settle at $57.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Natural gas for March delivery fell 13.7 cents to settle at $7.530 per 1,000 cubic feet after the government reported underground natural-gas supplies were bigger than expected.
OPEC was due Thursday to cut 500,000 barrels a day of crude-oil production to 1.2 million barrels a day.
February heating oil dropped nearly 2.5 cents to settle at $1.6589 a gallon. Reformulated gasoline futures settled at $1.5253 a gallon, down 2.7 cents.
AAA said Thursday the average U.S. retail regular-unleaded gasoline price was $2.158 a gallon, up 0.7 cent from Wednesday.