Oil prices fell today after Venezuelan President Mr Hugo Chavez resigned and executives at the OPEC member country's state oil company said they were ending a strike that hit exports this week.
London Brent blend crude fell 41 cents to $24.63 a barrel and US light crude slumped 69 cents to $24.30, a four-week low.
Worries about future Venezuelan compliance with OPEC policy also undermined prices because when Mr Chavez came to power in 1999 he ensured the Latin American producer cut output to respect its OPEC limits after years of quota cheating.
Mr Chavez resigned and was detained by the military after officers blamed him for killing at least 10 people during an anti-Chavez protest yesterday.
"This should mean an end to the strike and full Venezuelan supplies again but with crude down to $24.50 and given what's happening in the Middle East, there isn't too much downside," said oil analyst Mr Paul Horsnell of JP Morgan.
Mr Chavez came under pressure to quit after executives and workers at state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, began protests six weeks ago.
The dispute widened this week with business and labour leaders backing an indefinite general strike. Dissident PDVSA employees were heading back to work today and pledged to return exports to normal.
Venezuela is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter and a leading supplier to the United States. As much as 500,000 barrels a day of its 2.6 million bpd of crude output were cut by the strike and refinery operations severely curtailed. Last year Venezuela accounted for 13 per cent of US petroleum imports.