By Jon Nones

Light, sweet crude for May delivery dropped 44 cents to $105.18 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

In London, Brent crude futures dropped 1 cent to $103.76 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The repair of a key oil pipeline in Iraq and profit taking pushed down oil prices Monday, according to sources. An official from Iraq's South Oil Co. said Saturday that everything returned to normal as of 10 p.m. Thursday after the bombing of a key oil export pipeline in Basra earlier in the day.

However, prices rebounded from session lows because of a weak U.S. dollar. The euro gained slightly on the dollar Monday, with the European currency trading at $1.5781, up from $1.5760 on Friday.

The dollar also lost ground to the yen, falling to 99.36 Japanese yen from 100.00 yen on Friday.

By Arrangement with www.resourceinvestor.com

Iraq