Crude Prices Fall Following Sailors’ Release by Iran

Crude oil futures fell lower Thursday after Iran released 15 British sailors it had held for two weeks, Bloomberg reported.

Futures dipped a dime to $64.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said.

One analyst told Bloomberg that the two-week crisis had helped push oil prices up by as much as $7 to $8 a barrel.

Futures rose about $7.70 from the March 19 closing price through Thursday.

Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer behind Saudi Arabia, and much of the cartel’s oil passes through the Persian Gulf, where the sailors were seized for allegedly trespassing in Iranian waters.