Oil prices fell below $61 a barrel this morning after the weekend hanging of Saddam Hussein did not spark widespread violence.
US light crude traded 20 cents lower at $60.85 a barrel earlier this morning in Globex electronic trading, reversing Friday's late rally that saw prices closing 52 cents higher at $61.05 a barrel.
The New York Mercantile Exchange said on Friday there would be no open outcry trading today to honour former president Gerald Ford, who died last week, but electronic markets would still be open.
London Brent crude prices fell 10 cents to $60.76.
Iraq's former president, Saddam Hussein, was hanged on Saturday after a US-backed Iraqi court found him guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death for his role in killing of 148 Shia villagers after a failed assassination bid in 1982.
Following the execution a series of bombs went off and killed about 72 people. But the attacks did not escalate to heightened violence over the weekend that some traders had feared.
Crude prices were also kept subdued by continued mild weather conditions in the US, the world's top energy consumer.
Oil prices, depressed by the dampening effects of warm weather and high fuel inventories, dipped towards a one month-low of just above $60 on Friday early trade as traders largely ignored US data that showed a much steeper-than-expected fall in commercial crude stocks.