WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Oil prices declined sharply on Thursday on reports talks in Vienna to revive the Iranian nuclear deal are nearing their conclusion.
Recent data showing a drop in crude inventories in the U.S., and news about rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine slightly limited oil's slide.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for March ended lower by $1.90 or about 2% at $91.76 a barrel.
Brent crude futures were down $2.05 or 2.17% at $92.76 a barrel a little while ago.
'We will sooner or later need peaceful nuclear energy. If we do not pursue it . our independence will be harmed,' Iran's highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a televised speech amid negotiations with world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.
'After weeks of intensive talks, we are closer than ever to an agreement,' Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani announced on Twitter late on Wednesday but warned against celebrating too soon, pointing out that 'nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.'
Meanwhile, in the Russia-Ukraine issue, Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine accused Kyiv government forces of using mortars to attack their territory.
NATO's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Russia was continuing to send troops to what is now the biggest concentration of forces in Europe since the cold war. A Russian invasion of Ukraine can happen anytime now, the White House said.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday there was every indication Russia planned to invade Ukraine in the next few days and was preparing a pretext to justify it.
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