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Two of the nation’s largest oil field service companies, Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc., agreed to combine operations, a move that company officials said will save an estimated $2 billion a year in expenses.

West Texas Intermediate oil fell below $90 for the first time in 17 months amid signs that supplies from Russia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are outstripping demand.

The Commerce Department opened the door to more U.S. oil exports as long as the crude is lightly processed, tempering the impact of a law that has banned most such shipments for the past 40 years.

The Obama administration said it plans to sell 5 million barrels of crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a test of the distribution system.

Diesel’s retail price will decline to $3.81 a gallon this year — 11 cents below last year’s average but 4 cents over last month’s projection, the Department of Energy reported.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided Dec. 4 to maintain the current crude oil production level until June in an effort to keep prices stable.

Oil rose from its lowest level in two weeks Sept. 11, on speculation that a U.S. attack on Syria may threaten Middle Eastern oil exports even after President Obama decided to delay military strikes, Bloomberg News reported.

The price of oil dropped after the National Hurricane Center in Miami said there was no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic basin, Bloomberg News reported.