Oil prices fall below 74 dollars

World oil prices retreated below 74 dollars Friday on the concern of shrinking oil demand in U.S..

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, plunged 1.30 dollars to close at 73.24 dollars a barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for September delivery sank 1. 62 dollars settle with 73.39 dollars a barrel.

U.S. economy slowed in the second quarter, growing at a real 2. 5 percent annual rate after a torrid 5.6 percent pace in the first quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

Consumption in U.S., which uses more than 40 percent of the world's gasoline, is seen by investors and analysts as a bellwether for oil demand and price direction.Meanwhile, hundreds of aggrieved youths on Wednesday morning attacked the Ogboinbiri Flow Station of the Agip Oil Company in Nigeria's southern state of Bayelsa and held about 40 workers at the station hostages, local newspaper reported on Thursday.

About one-fourth of Nigeria's daily output is still shut after a series of militant attacks. Nigeria is Africa's leading oil producer and the fifth biggest source of U.S. oil imports.

Source: Xinhua