Commodity Online
NEW YORK : Oil fell again for a fourth straight session Wednesday as hurricane Gustav failed to wreak extensive damage to US Gulf oil infrastructure.
Crude oil for October delivery fell 23 cents to close at $109.48 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices, which are up 46% from a year ago, are 26% lower than the record of $147.27 reached on July 11.
Brent crude oil for October settlement fell 24 cents to $108.10 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Major oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips said that Hurricane Gustav caused no damage to platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.
Exxon Mobil Corp. said workers are returning to offshore platforms that weren't in the direct path of Gustav.
Oil fell 5.9% this week as the euro dropped to a seven-month low against the dollar. Prices rebounded from the session's lows on forecasts that tropical storms were forming in the Atlantic.
Tropical Storm Hanna expanded as it lashed Haiti and the Bahamas with torrential rains, laying a course that forecasters say may take it away from the Gulf and toward South Carolina as a hurricane by the end of the week, the US National Hurricane Center said as of 2 p.m. Miami time.
Farther out to sea, Tropical Storm Ike strengthened to 70 miles per hour and may become a hurricane today, the center said. Tropical Storm Josephine spun in the middle Atlantic Ocean, 305 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Its winds of 65 mph are forecast to weaken later this week.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on Sept. 9 in Vienna to review production targets.
