The price of oil edged lower Monday after its biggest one-day drop since April on expectations Libyan oil will soon return to the market.
Benchmark U.S. crude for August delivery was down 39 cents to $100.44 per barrel at 0535 GMT in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 3.1 per cent last week and is down 4.3 per cent so far in July.
Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gained 19 cents to $107.45 on the ICE exchange in London.
Oil prices shot up in June to a 10-month high over concerns violence in Iraq might disrupt supplies from OPECs second-largest exporter. Prices then drifted lower over the past two weeks as the advance by Iraqi insurgents stalled and oil exports were not threatened.
Friday’s decline of $2.10, or about 2 per cent, in the U.S. price was the biggest one-day loss since oil fell 2.2 per cent on April 22.
Along with more certainty about Iraqi supplies, agreements between Libya’s government and local militias may allow exports to surge in coming weeks.
At the same time, the International Energy Agency lowered its 2014 forecast of global demand due to weaker economic data. It predicted demand would rise 1.5 per cent next year to 94.1 million barrels a day.
In other Nymex trading:
— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.1 cent to $2.88 a gallon.
— Natural gas shed 0.9 cent to $4.137 per 1,000 cubic feet.
— Heating oil gained 0.5 cent to $2.878 a gallon.