Oil Prices Fall to Around 61 Dollars

Oil prices fall to around 61 dollars

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) — World crude oil prices fell for the fourth day in a session Monday to their lowest levels this year on better supplies.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, lost 60 cents to 61.24 dollars per barrel.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery fell 26 cents to 59.38 dollars per barrel

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the heating oil slid more than 1 cent to close at 1.6386 dollars a gallon, while gasoline lost 3.09 cents to settle at 1.4312 dollars a gallon. Natural gas fell 7.3 cents to 7.243 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet.

Crude futures prices gained almost 9 percent in January and hit 69.20 dollars in New York on Jan. 23 but have since declined on rising U.S. energy inventories and milder than expected weather in the northern hemisphere winter. The U.S. National Climatic Data Center said last month was America’s warmest January on record.

Traders are still concerned about the possibilities that Iran’s oil exports would halt if the United Nations impose an international sanctions on Teheran for its nuclear activities.

Iran, the second largest oil exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, announced Monday that it had indefinitely postponed its negotiations with Moscow over a Russian plan to enrich Iranian uranium and would consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if it considers it detrimental to its nuclear plans.