Crude registers sharp drop

Prices drop due to Dubai's debt concerns
Crude prices fell at Nymex on Friday, 27 November, 2009. Prices fell as the debt concerns in Dubai further troubled investors. The rising dollar also pressured the crude oil prices.
On Friday, crude-oil futures for light sweet crude for January delivery closed at $76.05/barrel (lower by $1.91 or 2.4%). Earlier during the day, the contract dropped to a low of $72.39. For the week, crude ended lower by 1.8%.
Oil prices had reached a high of $147 on 11 July, 2008 but have dropped almost 55% since then.
In the currency market on Friday, the dollar headed up against most of the major currencies. The dollar index, which measures the strength of dollar against basket of six other currencies, rose by almost 0.2%.
Dubai World, the largest corporate entity in the Persian Gulf emirate, asked creditors last Wednesday for a six-month stay on repayment of $60 billion in debts.
Among other energy products, December gasoline lost 3.6% to $1.9262 a gallon, and December heating oil fell 1.4% to $1.9622 a gallon.
Also on Friday, natural gas for January delivery ended up 3 cents, or 0.6%, at $5.192 per million British thermal units. It ended the week 9% higher.
Crude prices had ended FY 2008 lower by 54%, the largest yearly loss since trading began at Nymex.