Oil prices drop as British toddler freed

LONDON: World oil prices fell on Monday after rebels in key energy producer Nigeria freed a three-year old British girl.

The kidnapping last week of Margaret Hill, along with US supply concerns, had pushed oil prices to near 11-month highs on Friday, above 76 dollars a barrel in London. 

In early trading on Monday, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery shed 56 cents to $75.06 in London.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, lost 62 cents to $72.19.

Hill was back with her relieved parents on Monday after being freed by kidnappers in southern Nigeria, but three more foreigners were seized in the oil producing region.

The girl was covered in mosquito bites after her release on Sunday and in 'a bit of a daze' but otherwise unharmed, her father Mike Hill said. Police and the parents insisted no ransom was paid. 

As the Hill family celebrated in the country's oil capital of Port Harcourt, Nigerian television reported that armed men had kidnapped three foreigners, believed to be Lebanese or Chinese, from a compound in the city.

More than 200 foreigners, mostly oil workers or members of their families, have been abducted in the Niger Delta since January, 2006.

Hill was seized by gunmen last Thursday as she was being dropped off at school. Her father works in the oil industry.