Oil prices drop on markets

Light, sweet crude (WTI) for May delivery fell $2.77 to settle at $61.51 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, APA reports.

North Sea Brent crude for May settlement fell $1.65 to close at $66.59 a barrel in electronic trading on London's ICE Futures Exchange.

The two-week detention of the UK military personnel had driven U.S. crude oil prices briefly above $68 a barrel, their highest level since September last year. The market immediately fell following their release Thursday. There was no trading Friday because of Easter holiday.

But concerns about Iran's uranium enrichment program, as well as the conflict in Iraq, still underpin oil prices, which are well above this year's lows of $49.90 a barrel in January. Tehran has rejected United Nations demands to halt enrichment, instead pressing ahead with a nuclear program it calls peaceful.