Worries about erratic shipments of crude from the Middle East were placated when Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak resigned on Friday, which also pushed down oil futures to their lowest price in 10 weeks, Bloomberg reports.
After newly-appointed vice president Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had yielded control to the nation's military, effectively ending his 30-year autocratic rule, oil slipped 1.3 percent. Analysts were concerned about demonstrators forcing shut the Suez canal, which serves as a transport conduit for about 2.5 percent of the world's oil shipments.
"Mubarak's resignation should end the crisis in Egypt," John Kilduff, a partner at New York-based energy hedge fund Again Capital, told the news service. "The security premium that appeared when the unrest began will probably come out of the oil price."
Just before 5:15 p.m. on Friday, Brent crude oil futures were down 0.28 percent, a $0.28 cent decrease to $101.16 per barrel.
"Oil prices have been inversely correlated to what you'd normally think of as stability," said Edward Morse, head of commodities research at Credit Suisse Group. "You'd normally think that if a regime were sustained, it would lead to stability."
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