Commodity Online
NEW YORK : Oil fell from a record high of nearly $140 a barrel on Monday after Saudi Arabia promised to increase production to stabilize prices.

Crude oil for July delivery fell 42 cents, or 0.3%, to $134.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 98% from a year ago.

Nine minutes before New York pit trading opened, Nymex crude sprang to $139.89 a barrel, up more than $5 and a new record for a front-month contract.

The contract dropped 72 cents, or 86%, to 12 cents, or $120 a contract. It peaked at $4.11 or $4.10 a contract, on June 6, when July futures rose by a record $10.75 a barrel. Open interest on the contract was at 8.4 million barrels, down from a high of 12.9 million barrels May 27.

Brent crude oil for August settlement declined 75 cents, or 0.6%, to $134.36 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices reached a record $139.32 today.

Saudi will produce 9.7 million barrels of oil a day next month, an increase of 200,000 barrels from June's level, King Abdullah told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday.

Saudi Arabia has called a meeting for June 22 in Jeddah to help stabilize prices.

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