Oil price falls as Chavez resigns

Workers protest outside state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela

LONDON, England -- Oil prices continued to fall on Friday after the resignation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez raised hopes that a six-week oil workers strike would end soon.

Chavez , who stepped down after at least 10 people were killed and more than 80 injured during protests over his leadership on Thursday, has been as the main stumbling block to an settlement in the oil workers dispute.

In midday London trading, Brent crude for May delivery fell 29 cents to $24.75 a barrel. Earlier on Friday, the U.S. benchmark light crude fell to $24.50 in Asia, its lowest level since March 18.

Workers at Petroleos de Venezuela began protests in mid-March against a boardroom shake up at the state-owned oil company.

Chavez came under increasing pressure this week when business and labour leaders launched a general strike to protest against his handling of the dispute.

Venezuela -- a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is the world's No.4 oil exporter and the second biggest source of oil to the United States. The oil workers strike added to global concerns over tightening supplies of crude and higher oil prices.

The resignation of Chavez, who is a strong supporter of OPEC's push to hike prices, appears to have eased those supply concerns, at least for now.

"With potentially a new military junta in effect there, we don't know what change there will be if any in Venezuelan OPEC policies, but clearly from the suppliers point of view, customers want to see their oil again," Peter Gignoux, an analyst at Schroder SSB, told CNN.

Oil prices reached a high of $27 a barrel earlier this week after Iraq said it was freezing exports for 30 days or until Israel ended its military offensive in the West Bank. Iran said it would join Iraq in suspending exports if other Muslim producers did the same.

But prices slipped back on Tuesday after the world's largest exporter, Saudi Arabia, assured markets that it would provide enough oil to meet global demand.

Also on Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said crude oil stocks in the U.S. rose by 4.3 million barrels last week to a three-year high.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has cut output by 5 million barrels a day, or nearly 20 percent, since January 2001 to buoy up prices as demand faltered due to the economic downturn.

In March, the cartel agreed to extend output curbs until at least June, when ministers are due to meet to review market conditions.