Prices also deflated after Shell announced it was bringing back 180,000 barrels of daily oil production in Nig-eria. Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, said it would end its participation in the New York Harbor unleaded gasoline contract, as expected, but wouldn’t roll its money into another contact.
Gasoline prices fell 9 percent to a four-month low, as big funds bailed out of the contract after a terrorist plot was foiled in the UK.
European carriers canceled flights to Britain, where airports were experiencing massive delays. There were delays in the United States, too, amid heightened security.
Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York, said the news “revives fears, and causes people to cut travel plans, which has a contracting effect on petroleum demand.”
Light, sweet crude for September delivery dropped $2.35, or more than 3 percent, to settle at $74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Ex-change οΎ— erasing all of this week’s gains, and more. It was the lowest settlement price since July 28.
Gasoline futures dropped 18.33 cents to finish at $1.9889 a gallon, the lowest it’s settled since finishing at $1.9766 on April 7. Heating oil futures fell 8.13 cents to settle at $2.0250 a gallon.
