Oil Plunges Almost $17 for Week

Oil took its biggest weekly plunge in more than two years this week, falling almost $17 to near $97 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.

The dive, due in part to the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Sunday and a strengthening dollar this week, was in concert with a five-day plunge in commodity prices, Bloomberg said.

Crude futures fell $16.75, or about 15%, from last Friday’s $113.93 closing price on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which had been the highest settlement price since September 2008, to finish the week at $97.18 a barrel.

The strengthening U.S. dollar gained 1.4% to $1.4341 against the euro Friday, the highest since April 19, Bloomberg said. A higher dollar can depress oil prices because crude futures are traded in dollars.

Diesel and gasoline prices have skyrocketed to approach record levels at or above $4 a gallon in the past three months, on a continuous rise since late November.

The Department of Energy will release its next survey of filling station prices Monday afternoon in Washington.