Oil Prices Slip Below $101 After Libyan Deal

Oil prices fell below $101 a barrel Monday, following reports that four Libyan oil terminals under militia control could soon open and possibly boost global supplies.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for May delivery slipped 70 cents to $100.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price has vacillated around $100 a barrel for most of the past month.

Brent crude, used to set prices for international varieties of oil, dropped 90 cents to $105.82 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

The official Libyan news agency said the country’s main militia in the east agreed to hand back control of four oil terminals it captured and shut down last summer to demand a share in oil revenues. The shutdown has cost Libya billions of dollars.

Under the deal reached late Sunday, the militia would immediately hand over two terminals to the national government and return two others in a few weeks.

In the U.S., drivers paid an average of $3.58 a gallon at the gas station Monday. That’s up 9 cents from a month ago and just 2 cents lower than at this time last year.

In other energy futures trading in New York:

• Wholesale gasoline fell 1 cent to $2.93 a gallon.
• Natural gas rose 4 cents to $4.48 per 1,000 cubic feet.
• Heating oil shed 2 cents to $2.89 a gallon.