NEW YORK, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Crude oil settled at $93.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday, off $1.48, on oil production-related news at home and abroad.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration on Friday said crude supplies dropped by 7 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 27, more than expected by the American Petroleum Institute, which reported a drop of 5.7 million barrels Tuesday, MarketWatch.com reported.
On Thursday, Libya's National Oil Corp. said a major oil field would resume production soon following an agreement by protesters to end a months-long blockade. Libya's oil output has been offline since July, when protesters stopped work at many of the country's major oil facilities.
Selling in the oil market accelerated into the close of the session "as the bearish global news of Libyan [crude] flows returning have been compounded by a bearish domestic inventory report, especially for the [petroleum] products," Matt Smith, author of energy and financial-market newsletter The Daily Distillation, told MarketWatch.com
Gasoline prices shed nearly a nickel a gallon, falling to $2.65.
Home heating oil also lost 5 cents to settle at $2.94.
Natural gas fell almost 2 cents to $4.30 per million British thermal units.
The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline rose at the pump, climbing to $3.326 a gallon from Friday's $3.325, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.
