Oil production in North Dakota. Prices have fallen to their lowest levels of the year with traders increasingly focused on trade tensions and rising interest rates. Jim Wilson/The New York Times Oil prices have plummeted in recent days, months after surging to their highest point since 2014. After topping $75 a barrel in early October, the price of West Texas intermediate, the North American benchmark, has fallen by roughly one-quarter. Brent crude, the international standard, has had a comparable decline. A one-day drop of nearly 7 percent on Tuesday was among the sharpest in recent years, taking prices to the lowest levels of 2018. The abrupt retreat, which inevitably brings back memories of the industry-rattling crash in 2014, is a big worry for members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, whose economies are closely tied to oil revenues. Saudi Arabia, the most powerful OPEC member, said on […]