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SINGAPORE - Oil futures fell nearly a dollar, dropping below $58 a barrel, as forecasters predicted warmer weather early this week in the U.S. Northeast, the world's largest heating oil market, easing fears of a spike in fuel demand. Light, sweet crude for January delivery slipped 86 cents to $57.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in electronic trading late afternoon in Singapore. In London, January Brent crude rose 29 cents to $55.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. "The market's reacting to forecasts that heating oil demand will be 20 percent below normal this week, giving...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil dipped to a four-month low under $57 a barrel on Wednesday as dealers braced for a fresh increase in U.S. oil inventories amid unseasonally warm weather. U.S. crude fell as low as $56.82 a barrel in electronic trading, its weakest since July 21. It was trading down 2 cents at $56.96 a barrel by 0746 GMT, extending an 11-week slump that has wiped 20 percent or nearly $14 off prices. London Brent crude was down 3 cents at $55.15. Although some analysts continue to predict a turnaround once temperatures fall and if OPEC opts to cut...

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Crude oil futures drifted lower Tuesday as an International Energy Agency official said high pump prices have hurt fuel demand. Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 6 cents to US$57.63 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract Monday rose 16 cents to settle at US$57.69. In London, December Brent crude fell 8 cents to US$54.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. High oil prices have started dampening global demand and the slowdown in consumption growth could in turn push prices lower, Noe Van Hulst, the International Energy Agency's...

SINGAPORE - Crude oil futures opened the week slightly higher, briefly rising above $58 a barrel, on predictions a cold snap was headed for the northeastern United States, the world's biggest winter heating fuel market. Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose as much as 57 cents to $58.10 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before slipping to $57.78. The contract fell to $56.93 a barrel last week before closing at $57.53 Friday. December Brent crude on London's International Petroleum Exchange was 20 cents higher at $55.19 a barrel. Friday's close was the benchmark contract's...

SINGAPORE - Crude oil futures slipped further below $58 a barrel Friday amid reports of rising supply and falling demand. Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 9 cents to $57.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in electronic trading in Singapore. On Thursday, the contract fell to $57.80, the lowest level for the front-month contract since July 21. The U.S. Energy Information Administration released data that showed natural gas in storage grew more than expected last week, surpassing a level that many analysts believe is necessary to meet winter demand. The Paris-based International Energy Agency said in...

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Crude oil prices held steady just below US$60 a barrel on Wednesday after predictions of warmer weather in the United States sparked a big drop two days earlier. Market experts said prospects for rising demand could keep prices at current levels. Light, sweet crude for December delivery gained 5 cent to US$59.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the contract rose 9 cents to settle at $59.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, where a day earlier they had fallen nearly US$1.50 to a level about 15 percent...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil shed nearly a dollar on Monday, sinking below $60 after Hurricane Wilma bypassed storm-battered U.S. oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. light crude fell as low as $59.56 a barrel, the lowest since July 28. It was down 93 cents by 0922 GMT to $59.70, reversing a gain of 61 cents on Friday on fears Wilma could hinder the recovery of oil operations in the Gulf. Prices were 16 percent below the record-high of $70.85 a barrel struck in late August in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. London Brent crude lost 96...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil fell $1 a barrel on Tuesday as a threatened hurricane was expected to miss rigs and refineries in the U.S. Gulf and the world's top banker said record prices were eroding demand. U.S. crude lost 98 cents to $63.38 a barrel by 1125 GMT, after a gain of 2.8 percent on Monday. London Brent crude was $1.06 down at $59.51 a barrel. Tropical Storm Wilma gained strength in the Caribbean Sea and was expected to become a full-blown hurricane, but its path was set to shift east toward Florida and away from the heart of U.S....

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil climbed back above $62 on Tuesday after the International Energy Agency said it saw no lasting damage to demand that has pushed producers and refiners to the limit and could lead to fuel shortages this winter. There have been signs recently that persistent high prices are taking their toll on the economies of the world's big consumers. Hurricanes that battered U.S. Gulf rigs and refiners catapulted oil to new record highs, finally crimping fuel use. But the IEA, adviser to 26 industrialized nations, forecast demand growth would quicken to 1.75 million barrels per day next year...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices fell for a fifth day on Thursday, dipping to their lowest level in two months after U.S. government data showed a drop in oil demand in the world's largest consumer. U.S. crude futures for November slid 19 cents to $62.60 a barrel, having earlier traded as low as $62.23. London Brent crude was down 32 cents to $59.80. Oil prices have fallen sharply from their August 30 record high of $70.85 on signs that soaring costs are eroding demand, offsetting fears over tight supplies in the wake of hurricanes that toppled production platforms and shut...

NEW YORK: Oil prices fell Tuesday for the third straight session amid signs of weakening demand and the prospect President George W. Bush's administration will tap the nation's heating oil emergency reserve. U.S. oil consumption has weakened significantly in recent weeks amid high pump prices produced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in late August, with many drivers switching to mass transit among taking other measures. "The demand losses that have happened vastly exceed the seasonal decline," said Kyle Cooper, an analyst with Citigroup in Houston. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for November ended $1.57 lower at $63.90...

SINGAPORE -- Oil prices slipped Tuesday after the U.S. government indicated it might release emergency stockpiles of heating oil to combat supply disruptions from recent hurricanes. But energy futures were not expected to continue their retreat for long, analysts said, because a U.S. petroleum inventories report due later in the week was likely to show that Hurricane Rita hurt supply ahead of the coming Northern Hemisphere winter. Midmorning in Singapore, light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 16 cents to $65.31 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 77 cents to settle...

The cost of natural gas reached another record high Thursday, rising 9.6 cents or 0.7 percent to close at $14.196 per million Btu. Traders bid up the commodity on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the U.S. Energy Department reported natural gas inventories had grown less than expected and the pace of production recovery in the Gulf of Mexico slowed. Crude oil rose 44 cents to settle at $66.79 per barrel. Gasoline for October delivery dropped 3.4 percent to close at $2.2516 a gallon, and October heating oil fell 0.8 percent to close at $2.1247 a gallon. The Energy...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil held firm above $66 a barrel on Thursday stoked by fears that hurricane-wrecked U.S. refineries would be unable to churn out ample heating fuel to warm American consumers this winter. But Europe was riding to the rescue again, booking tankers of gasoline and heating oil to move transatlantic to help prevent a full-blown fuel crisis in the world's biggest oil consumer. Strikes in France, a leading U.S. oil products supplier, meant French refiners might sit on the sidelines. U.S. crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 6 cents at $66.41 a barrel by 1000...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil raced toward $68 on Thursday as Hurricane Rita bore down on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production and forced six refineries in Texas to shut down. Companies scrambled to close facilities and evacuate staff as Rita, now a maximum Category 5 storm, aimed her 175 mph (280 kph) winds on Texas, home to a quarter of U.S. refining capacity. It is expected to hit land by early Saturday. "Rita will remain the market's focus ... unless it unexpectedly breaks apart. But with it being such a fierce storm we wouldn't play the short side of...

 SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed more than 1 percent on Monday as a new storm system appeared to be headed for the U.S. Gulf Coast, and as OPEC ministers appeared to favor leaving crude output unchanged for now.U.S. light crude rose 78 cents to $63.78 a barrel as the season's 17th tropical storm formed near the Bahamas and OPEC members leaned toward taking no immediate action on extra supply. London Brent crude jumped 93 cents to $62.74 a barrel. Those gains helped prices rebound from a near $2 fall on Friday, which took oil to its lowest close in...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil eased further below $65 on Friday on fears that record high prices are undermining global demand, overshadowing nagging worries about refined fuel supplies in the United States, the world's top consumer. U.S. light crude was trading down 26 cents at $64.49 a barrel by 0515 GMT, extending a loss of 34 cents on Thursday. London Brent crude slipped 16 cents to $63.50 a barrel. U.S. prices have fallen sharply from a record high $70.85 on August 30, just a day after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, toppling oil platforms and shutting down refineries. Oil's...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices slid in post-holiday trade on Tuesday, while Brent crude was steady as industrialised countries began to release oil from emergency stocks to make up for U.S. output disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. Fears that the aftermath of the storm could dent consumer confidence and trim U.S. economic growth also weighed on prices, while battered Gulf of Mexico refineries began to restart. U.S. light crude fell $1.03, or 1.5 percent, to $66.54 a barrel by 0508 GMT, following London Brent crude's $1.22 losses on Monday when U.S. trade was closed for a holiday. Brent crude edged...

Storm disruptions to output in the Gulf of Mexico and nine weeks of falling gasoline supplies joined forces to pull regular unleaded gas prices to a fresh record -- and they're still nowhere near their peak, analysts said Wednesday. There's a "surfeit of worry over gasoline supplies to much of the U.S. and gasoline prices have acted accordingly," said John Kilduff, an analyst at Fimat USA. A truck moves through the parking lot of a Sunoco gas station in South Bend, Ind., Wednesday, August 31st, 2005, where the advertised price for gasoline was $3.50 to $3.70 a gallon depending upon...

Opec President Shaikh Ahmad Al Fahd Al Sabah said yesterday he will propose the cartel raise its output by 500,000 barrels per day when the group meets in September in an attempt to help cool oil prices at record highs. Shaikh Ahmad, also Kuwaiti oil minister, said he will also propose a 500,000 bpd increase in the group's official output ceiling at the September 19th meeting. "We hope that the resolution to the board to increase production and the ceiling, 500,000 (bpd) and 500,000 (bpd), and to refresh the dialogue with all the main consumers, I hope this will...