Crude oil futures prices fell more than US$1 a barrel on Friday, following a sharp decline in heating oil futures and on speculation that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which pumps more than a third of the world's oil, will not cut production at its meeting today.
However, prices remain 40 percent higher than a year ago and analysts said the market remained jittery ahead of the first democratic elections in Iraq since the US-led war, also scheduled for today.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery dropped US$1.66 to US$47.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. A year ago, crude futures settled at US$33.62 per barrel.
February heating oil futures fell US$0.0669 to US$1.33 per gallon as traders focused on forecasts calling for milder weather next week in the US Northeast.
In London, Brent for March delivery fell US$1.49 to US$44.95 on the International Petroleum Exchange.
OPEC agreed in December to cut production by 1 million barrels a day starting this month to bring output closer to its self-imposed target of 27 million barrels a day.
OPEC members have suggested the group may not cut output quotas further because prices are already high enough. Ali Naimi, oil minister for the group's largest producer, Saudi Arabia, said Thursday that members will wait until the March meeting to decide on further cuts.
Traders are anxious, too, about Iraq's election, fearing that an upsurge in violence could hit southern exports, which have been largely spared the repeated sabotage that has paralyzed northern flows for more than a month.
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