Crude oil prices fell nearly 3% Wednesday after President Donald Trump signalized the U.S. might soon wind down its military operations against Iran. He also threatened to quit NATO over its lack of support in the Middle East operation.
“I can’t tell you exactly … we’re going to be out pretty quickly,” Trump told reporters. “They won’t have a nuclear weapon because they are incapable of that now, and then I’ll leave, and I’ll take everybody with me, and if we have to we’ll come back to do spot hits,” he added.
West Texas Intermediate crude fell below $100 and closed at $99.68 with a decline of $1.70 or 1.68% a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude closed at $101 a barrel with a drop of $2.94 or 2.83%.
The drop in oil prices came after Iran announced Tuesday it was ready for a resolution or else it would intensify attacks on U.S. assets and its allies.
Natural gas prices also declined for the day, closing at $2.819 MMBtu following a fall of $0.064 or 2.22%.
Fuel prices topped $4 a gallon for gasoline this week and rose 5 cents to hit $4.06 per gallon, according to AAA. Diesel fuel went up 4 cents at $5.49 per gallon.
Oklahoma’s average remained at $3.27 for gasoline while diesel fuel prices fell a penny to $4.48 per gallon.
Gasoline prices in Oklahoma City fell one cent to $3.28 while in Tulsa, the average rose 2 cents to $3.24 per gallon.
Most Oklahoma energy stocks finished in the loss column on Wednesday. SandRidge Energy led all with a more than 7% loss for the day. On the plus side, Stardust Power rose about 9%.
USD+0.28