Concerns about Cyprus' struggle with sovereign debt were weighing on crude oil futures on Thursday as the nation is facing a deadline regarding bailout aid awarded to it last weekend, according to Bloomberg.
Lawmakers rejected earlier this week the mandate to tax deposits at banks in exchange for the bailout aid and the European Central Bank said on Thursday that Cyprus leaders must decide how it will handle the fiscal troubles by this Monday. The nation otherwise might be frozen out of loan money.
"We're going to continue to follow every development of the Cyprus story," president Michael Lynch with Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Eastern Massachusetts told the news source on Thursday. "Cyprus is an example of what ails the euro zone. Some of the concern seems overdone because the collapse of Cyprus isn't going to bring Europe's economy crashing down."
At 2:25 p.m. on Thursday, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures dropped 1.01 percent, a 94-cent loss to $92.56 per barrel. Brent crude oil futures fell 1.04 percent, a $1.15 drop to $107.59 per barrel.
Reuters reports Societe Generale increased its 2013 forecast for Brent crude oil prices on Thursday but it reduced the year's forecast for WTI crude oil.
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