Oil prices slide beneath USD 116 per barrel

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Oil rises to $117 on Russia-US tensionOil falls by more than $1 to below $112Fall in oil likely to be moderate: ICRA'Supply crunch may bring $200 oil in 5-10 yrs'

Crude prices slumped below USD 116 a barrel on Friday as the market shrugged off confirmation that separatist Kurdish rebels were behind a blast that has cut a strategic oil pipeline in Turkey.

Brent North Sea crude for September delivery shed USD 1.91 to 115.99 per barrel in electronic deals.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery dropped USD 1.73 to 118.29 a barrel.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline at Refahiye in eastern Turkey has been on fire since the blast on Tuesday and was expected to be closed for about two weeks.

The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said that the explosion was "an act of sabotage" by its militants, according to a report on the website of the Firat news agency which is close to the rebels.

World oil prices had rebounded back above USD 120 on Thursday on news that the pipeline carrying crude from central Asia to the west would remain shut for about 15 days.

The BTC was inaugurated in 2006, carrying oil from the Caspian Sea fields to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from where tankers transport the crude to western markets.

Despite modest price gains yesterday, the oil market has dived lower this week on mounting concern that slower economic growth in the United States would translate into lower global energy demand.