Oil drops closer to $12 a barrel

 

After a 25% tumble in prices on Monday, oil prices in the U.S. shot up on news of a bomb explosion on an oil tanker in Syria, only to slip back nearly 3.5% for the day, settling at $12.34 a barrel for West Texas Intermediate crude.

It had been trading as low as $10.07 before news of the tanker explosion.

The 44 cent drop came after investors learned more about the bombing which killed at least 10 people on a tanker in the northern Syrian city of Afrin according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

News of the bomb detonation led to a rise in oil’s “risk premium, even in a market with a glut of crude,” Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at The Price Futures Group, told MarketWatch. “Still, we need to find out if this was a one off incident and who the perpetrators turn out to be.”

International Brent crude dropped nearly a dollar a barrel and ended the day at $20.98 a barrel, making for a nearly 5% drop from Monday.

Natural gas slipped two cents and finished Tuesday at $1.79, a drop of more than 1% on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Chesapeake Energy made a nearly 6% drop as shares slipped $1.76 and finished Tuesday at $29.18 a share. Devon Energy added 21 cents to finish the day at $10.97 while ConocoPhillips rose $1.33 to reach $38.47 a share.

Marathon Oil was up 14 cents at $4.99 while ONEOK added $2 to reach $30.53 a share, a more than 7% increase. Phillips 66 jumped $3.85 to reach$67.34 a share while SandRidge Energy was down two cents at $2.11.

American Electric Power grew $1.01 to reach $84.63 a share.