July 2, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1424

LONDON, July 1: Oil prices dipped here on Tuesday as worries eased about a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico and a strike in Venezuela that had sent prices rocketing a day earlier.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for August delivery dropped 20 cents per barrel from the previous closing level to $28.13.

New York’s reference light sweet crude August contract was down 10 cents at $30.09 per barrel in out-of-hours electronic trading, having leapt by 92 cents on Monday.

“The twin factors, the strike in Nigeria and the storm ... are now almost discarded,” said GNI-Man trader Paul Goodhew.

“The Nigerian situation, although it’s pretty serious, is not affecting oil exportation.”

Multinational oil firms and the state-run oil giant said production activities in Nigeria were still not affected on Tuesday, the second day of a nationwide strike called by the central labour body to protest fuel price hikes.

The main oil sector workers’ union said the strike had disrupted oil production.—AFP