Crude prices drop as markets await impact of insurgency on Iraq’s oil output

The price of oil fell Monday as traders waited to see if an insurgency in Iraq would affect the country’s oil production and exports.

In a blitz through Iraq’s western desert over the weekend, insurgents captured four towns and three border crossings on the country’s frontiers with Jordan and Syria, greatly expanding territory under their control in the country’s north.

The bulk of Iraq’s oil production and export operations are in the south.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery dropped 66 cents to US$106.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 69 cents to US$114.12 a barrel in London.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex: wholesale gasoline slipped two cents to US$3.11 a U.S. gallon (3.79 litres), heating oil fell two cents to US$3.03 a gallon and natural gas dropped nine cents to US$4.45 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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