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September 14, 2006 2:30 PM, EDT

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rude oil futures fell 70 cents to close at $63.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The drop follows yesterday’s 21-cent gain, which was the first in eight days of trading, Bloomberg said.

The slump in prices follows news of increased natural gas inventories, which some utilities use interchangeably with oil products depending on costs, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, oil giant BP said it is seeking approval from the United States government to resume production and begin pipeline inspections on the eastern half of its Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska, Bloomberg reported.

The Prudhoe Bay field has been producing about 200,000 barrels of oil a day — about half of its 400,000 barrel capacity — since a corroded pipeline forced BP to shut down the eastern half of the field in early August, Bloomberg said.