London - Oil prices fell on Tuesday on profit-taking one day after Russia-Ukraine tensions had sent them higher.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for May delivery, slid 86 cents to stand at $103.19 compared with Monday's closing level.
Brent North Sea crude for May was down 32c to $108.75 a barrel in London morning trade.
The market had marched higher on Monday as traders kept a wary eye on escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine that have raised fears of a disruption to energy supplies to Western Europe.
"The Ukraine crisis is likely to remain in a deadlock and should continue to render good support to benchmark crude prices in the near term," Tan Chee Tat, an analyst at brokers Phillip Futures, told AFP.
Ukraine's Western-backed leader Oleksandr Turchynov on Tuesday accused Russia of trying to enflame the country's southeast.
European foreign ministers meanwhile held back on unleashing punishing economic sanctions against Russia in hopes that EU-US mediated talks Thursday in Geneva between Moscow and Kiev could help deescalate the most explosive East-West standoff since the Cold War.
US President Barack Obama had urged Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Monday to press pro-Moscow groups to lay down their arms in Ukraine.
With Ukraine a key conduit for Russian gas to Western Europe, traders are concerned that any full-scale armed conflict will disrupt supplies and send oil and gas prices skyrocketing.
Russian deliveries account for 34% of the natural gas supplies to the European Union, according to the Soufan Group, a US-based intelligence firm.