World oil prices fell on Friday evening after the International Energy Agency (IEA) lowered its forecast for global oil demand this year and foreign hostages were freed in major crude producer Nigeria.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for June delivery lost 87 cents to $72.56 a barrel. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, declined $1.02 to $72.30.
Before the falls, prices had risen by about $2 since Wednesday due to the abduction of three foreign workers in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt, Iran's nuclear crisis and tight petrol stocks in the US.
The IEA cut its 2006 forecast for demand growth by 200,000 barrels per day to 1.25 million bpd as high price have slowed consumption. In Nigeria, police confirmed that three foreign oil workers seized on Thursday in the oil-rich Niger Delta had been freed.
