Oil prices drop below $73 a barrel in Asia

SINGAPORE - Crude oil futures dropped Friday in Asian trading after a big jump on the previous day that was caused by supply worries linked to violence in Nigeria, a major oil producer. Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell 58 cents to $72.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract gained $1.19 to settle at $73.32 a barrel Thursday. On Thursday, police said gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in a second day of attacks targeting such workers. It was the second attack in about 24 hours on foreigners in Port Harcourt, where many oil-services companies keep their main Nigerian operations. A gunman on Wednesday killed an American riding in a car to work at the offices of the U.S. drilling-equipment maker Baker Hughes Inc. A new militant movement, whose attacks on oil installations have cut more than 20 percent of Nigeria's daily production of 2.5 million barrels, said Tuesday it would target oil workers with fresh attacks. But a spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday that the group wasn't responsible for either the slaying or the kidnappings. Concerns about Iran, a major oil exporter, also continued to support prices. This week, key U.N. Security Council members agreed to present Tehran with a choice of incentives — including energy security and civilian nuclear power — or sanctions in deciding whether to suspend its uranium enrichment program. The move delays a U.S.-backed draft U.N. resolution that could lead to sanctions, or even possible military action, if Iran does not suspend enrichment. The geopolitical worries overshadowed the weekly petroleum report from the United States on Wednesday, when the U.S. Energy Department said crude-oil inventories rose last week by 300,000 barrels to 347 million barrels, or roughly 5 percent above year-ago levels. In Asia trading Friday, gasoline futures fell 2.01 cents to $2.1995 a gallon while heating oil prices dropped 1.14 cents to $2.0850 a gallon. Natural gas fell 9.9 cents to $6.550 per 1,000 cubic feet.-AP