Crude oil prices Wednesday held to less than $83 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange with trading tight as oil ministers met in Austria.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries met in Vienna Thursday. Undoubtedly, Saudi Arabia's recent call for higher production quotas is on the agenda as is the international sanction movement to cut off Iran's oil revenues in a confrontation over the regional power's suspected development of a nuclear weapons program.
Energy costs wavered Thursday morning. West Texas Intermediate crude oil for July delivery in New York Wednesday dropped 4 cents to reach $82.58 per barrel. Natural gas added 3.4 cents to hit $2.219 per million British thermal units.
Home heating oil shed 0.7 cents to $2.6039 per gallon.
Gasoline moved 3.9 cents lower to reach $2.6515 a gallon.
At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline fell to $3.532 per gallon from Wednesday's $3.539, AAA said.
