Oil prices sank this evening as dealers digested poor US data which signalled weak energy demand, after earlier striking eight-month peaks on tensions in African crude producer Nigeria.
On the last day of the second quarter, London's Brent North Sea crude for August delivery fell $2.11 to $68.88 a barrel, having earlier surged as high as $73.50.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, tumbled $2.05 to $69.44 a barrel, after earlier touching $73.38 - which was also last seen in October.
Consumer confidence in the US - the world's biggest energy consuming nation - sank in June as households worried about the prolonged recession and vanishing jobs, the Conference Board said today.
The business research group said its consumer confidence index retreated to 49.3 points in June from a revised 54.8 in May, an eight-month high. Most analysts expected a much stronger reading of 55.3 points.
Traders also digested data showing that Britain's recession-battered economy shrank at its fastest pace in over 50 years during the first quarter of 2009 amid the worst global slowdown in decades.
Oil had plunged from record peaks of over $147 in July 2008 to $32 in December as a global downturn slashed energy demand, but the market has clawed back ground on hopes of green shoots of recovery.
Despite today's losses, New York oil has soared by about 40% in value over the past three months. It had closed at $49.66 on March 31, which was the last day of the first quarter.
Oil companies reject Iraqi terms
Chinese, American, Italian, British, Dutch and South Korean oil firms were among those who have rejected the terms laid down by the Iraqi government to work in four separate oil fields.
China's CNOOC and Sinopec wanted $25.4 a barrel extracted from the Maysan oil field but the government offered them only $2.30.
The US energy giant ConocoPhillips, meanwhile, asked for $26.70 a barrel to work in the Bai Hassan oil field but the government offered $4.
The government was dealt another blow when a consortium featuring Sinopec, Italy's Eni Medio Orient SpA, America's Occidental Petroleum and South Korea's Korea Gas Corp (Kogas) withdrew from bidding for the Zubair oil field.
Five proposals for the West Qurna field also fell by the wayside, with the leading offer from ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell being deemed over the odds by the government.
Controversy surrounds the process, which some Iraqi lawmakers condemning it as illegal. Some in the state-run oil industry have criticised it for selling Iraq's vast oil wealth short. Iraq has proven oil reserves of 115 billion barrels, the world's third largest, but the true amount of hydrocarbons sitting beneath its desolate deserts could be far greater.
