Oil’s wild ride was buffeted by geopolitical tensions involving Venezuela and Iran and led to a price drop of 4 to 5% on Thursday.
The huge fall came a day after Brent crude, the world benchmark, hit a three-and-a-half-month high on Wednesday. Thursday was a different story as prices posted their biggest fall since June after President Trump pulled military action off the table in Iran where the crackdown on protesters was easing.
Brent crude fell $2.76 a barrel or 4.15% and settled at $63.76 per barrel.
West Texas intermediate crude, the benchmark in the U.S., dropped $2.83 a barrel or 4.56% before finishing at $59.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Natural gas prices recorded a slight gain, reaching $3.1298 MMBtu after an increase of $0.008 or 0.26%.
Trading of Oklahoma energy stocks turned into a split on Thursday. Devon Energy fell more than 4% on news it was in reported talks to merge with Coterra Energy.