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Oil prices plunged to US$115 a barrel on Friday, driven lower by a huge jump in the U.S. dollar, signs of moderating demand around the world and the burgeoning belief that commodities may have peaked.

Shrugging off concerns about a sabotaged oil pipeline in Turkey, investors pulled their money out of commodities and put it back into stocks - giving crude oil a weekly loss of nearly $10 a barrel, and driving the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 300 points.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery slumped $4.82 to settle at $115.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange - its lowest settlement since May 1. During trading, crude dipped as low as $114.90. Prices for gasoline, heating oil and natural gas also dropped.

In London, Brent crude for September delivery fell $4.53 to finish at $113.33 a barrel.

Many analysts have pointed to the $117-a-barrel mark for crude oil as technically significant - a move below this level suggests, they say, that oil’s recent slide is more than a brief pullback. Crude is now down $32 from its high of $147.27 on July 11.