NEW YORK, United States

OIL prices fell sharply yesterday on deepening fears about Japan’s economy after its nuclear crisis worsened following a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Potentially dangerous levels of radiation have been reported leaking from a crippled nuclear complex in the disaster area. More than 10,000 people are thought to have died after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on Friday.

Investors worried about diminished demand for oil and other products in Japan, the world’s third-largest oil importer. However, Wall Street analysts expect that Japan will eventually increase imports of oil, coal and natural gas.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said yesterday that it will send liquefied natural gas and fuel oil to Japan to help meet power shortages. Japan produces about 28 per cent of its energy from coal-fired power plants, but can also run some generators on LNG and even crude oil. Fifty-four nuclear reactors provide about 25 per cent of the country’s power. Four of those reactors are in the nuclear plant that leaked radiation.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery dropped US$4.01, or four per cent, to settle at US$97.18 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent crude fell US$5.15, or 4.5 per cent, to settle at US$108.52 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The uncertainty over how long it could take Japan to recover triggered a sell-off in other commodities as well, as stocks markets fell around the world. Many investors bought assets considered to be safer to hold during uncertain economic times, such as the dollar.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 300 points before regaining some ground to close down nearly 138 points, or 1.1 per cent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the Nasdaq composite index also were lower. Stocks got a boost off earlier lows after the Fed said it will stick with its US$600-billion bond repurchase programme and the US economy was on a firmer footing.

After a rise in oil prices like the world saw this month, “we were due for a sinkhole day like this”, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.

Oil prices are still higher than they were in mid-February when uprisings in Libya shut down that country’s oil production and sent benchmark crude from about US$85 a barrel to more than US$105 a barrel last week, its highest level since September 2008. Libya produced only about two per cent of the world’s crude. Prices rose, however, on concerns that unrest would spread to bigger producers like Saudi Arabia. Troops from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations are in neighboring Bahrain to help keep order as anti-government protests continue there.

Kloza and Tom Bentz, director of BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Inc, think oil prices will fall further because of ongoing concerns about Japan.

Bentz speculated prices could fall as low as US$95 a barrel in coming weeks. “It’s going to be a while before Japan is able to recover from this and the market is starting to price that in,” he said.

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil fell 11 cents to settle at US$2.9538 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 15.7 cents to settle at US$2.8029 per gallon. Natural gas rose 2.7 cents to settle at US$3.941 per 1,000 cubic feet.

AP