Brent crude drops 22 cents on session, remains near $72 per barrel

Crude oil prices were mixed on Tuesday. Brent crude for July delivery dropped 22 cents to $71.96 per barrel on the Intercontinental exchange in London.

While West Texas Intermediate crude July contracts were lower most of the session, by mid-afternoon in New York it had added 1 cent to $69.10 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. What declines there were, were put down to profit-taking, and the declines were limited by strike concerns in Nigeria and Brazil.

At mid-afternoon in New York, despite the slight gain in crude oil prices, prices for gasoline, heating oil, and natural gas futures were all lower. Nymex July gasoline had dropped 3 cents to $2.23 per gallon, while July heating oil was 1 cent lower to $2.04 per gallon. September natural gas, meanwhile, dropped 18 cents to $7.73 per million British thermal units.