China raised prices for fuel by as much as 18 percent on Friday in a move intended to cool the nation's surging energy consumption.
Demand for the energy needed fuel China's booming economy has contributed to unheard of prices for a barrel of oil.
That price pitched downward immediately Thursday. Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $4.75 to settle at $131.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The price increases were announced late Thursday by the National Development and Reform Commission, the government's main economic planning agency.
