Oil prices drop further

Oil prices fell further on Friday, but losses were less severe than a day earlier when traders had sold heavily on fresh worries about the weakness of the US economy.
Meanwhile oil market officials here launched a probe into an alleged rogue trader who this week helped push prices to eight-month peaks, costing his company nearly 10 million dollars (7.15 million euros).
In late afternoon London trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August dropped 52 cents to 66.13 dollars a barrel.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, dipped 47 cents to 66.26 dollars per barrel.
Crude futures had sunk more than two dollars on Thursday as weak US jobs data dampened hopes of a speedy economic recovery in the United States, which is the world's top energy consumer.
"The US employment report was a negative for the oil price," said David Moore, a commodity analyst with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Data released Thursday showed US job losses surged to 467,000 in June, pushing the unemployment rate to a 26-year high of 9.5 percent.
Since the recession began in the United States in December 2007, the world's biggest energy user has lost 6.5 million jobs and the jobless rate has risen 4.6 percentage points.