World oil prices edged lower on Friday on profit-taking, after bumper gains the previous day as a crisis deepened between Russia and the West over the former’s invasion of Georgia, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, fell 91 cents to $120,27 a barrel in electronic deals.
London’s Brent North Sea crude for October also slid 91 cents to $119,25.
Crude futures had rocketed higher on Thursday, winning almost $6 in value as traders tracked geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia, as well as reacting to a weak dollar and large drop in stockpiles of US motor fuel.
Meanwhile, “Cold War sentiment supported [oil prices] as tensions increased between the West and Russia over the deployment of a US missile system in Poland, sparking fears of disruption to supply”, said analysts at British energy consultancy John Hall Associates in a note to clients.
Russia, the world’s biggest producer of crude oil after recently overtaking Saudi Arabia, promised to withdraw most forces from deep inside Georgia on Friday, but was set to retain a military presence in two separatist regions and a buffer zone.
On Thursday it had told Nato that it was suspending all cooperation, a spokesperson for the Western military alliance said in Brussels. — AFP