Oil holds near $84 per barrel

Crude oil prices held close to $84 Friday after the OPEC oil cartel elected to keep production at 30 million barrels per day. Oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries met in Vienna Thursday. They said demand would grow, but not fast enough to warrant increasing the group's production quota. In New York, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for July delivery lost 8 cents in late trading to reach $83.95 per barrel. Natural gas lost 2.7 cents to hit $2.468 per million British thermal units. Home heating oil gave up 0.94 cents to $2.6371 per gallon. Gasoline moved lower, giving up 0.82 cents to reach $2.6935 a gallon. At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline fell to $3.524 per gallon from Thursday's $3.532, AAA said.