Hurricane Frances spares US oil facilities; oil prices decline
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NEW YORK, September 7 (New Ratings) - Crude oil futures declined yesterday in response to the news of Hurricane Frances missing the oil facilitates at the Gulf of Mexico.
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Oil futures retreated below $50 US a barrel Monday, though analysts said there is enough uncertainty about geopolitics and weather - and the industry&#39;s ability to boost crude oil output quickly - to keep prices from plummeting anytime
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Hurricane Frances weakened as it moved slowly across Florida, causing massive power outages and flooding across the state. Frances is expected to move out into the Gulf of Mexico and then cross back into northern
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Though high winds and flooding  generated billions of dollars in damage in Florida, Hurricane  Frances is expected to be less costly for insurers than feared,  analysts and industry officials said on Monday.
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WASHINGTON -- Oil prices fell yesterday as OPEC's president said supplies were growing faster than demand and traders breathed easier knowing that petroleum production in the Gulf of Mexico did not suffer as a result of Hurricane Frances.
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Hurricane Ivan spared the critical Gulf Coast refining belt, but oil prices rose anyway Thursday on fears a new storm brewing in the Caribbean will delay tankers carrying imported crude to U.S. ports.Ivan swept east of major refineries, tank farms and other facilities in Louisiana and Texas. It also bypassed the biggest concentrations of offshore oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.ChevronTexaco's Pascagoula, Miss., refinery was the closest to the hurricane's path and remained closed Thursday. "The preliminary (damage) assessment is somewhat positive," said spokesman Steve Renfroe, who said the company had not determined when it could restart the plant.But on Ivan's heels Tropical Storm Jeanne knocked out a portion of production at a refinery in the U.S. Virgin Islands and barreled toward Puerto Rico.As a result, oil for October delivery rose 30 cents to &#36;43.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Energy companies feared Ivan would make landfall in Louisiana or Texas and damage refineries there. The Gulf Coast accounts for nearly half of U.S. daily refining capacity of 16 million barrels. U.S. refiners are running near capacity to build stocks of winter heating fuels."The industry dodged a bullet in that the storm was really a couple of hundred miles east of refinery row (north of New Orleans) up the Mississippi River," said Jeff Dietert, refining industry analyst at Simmons &amp; Co. He said precautionary closures eliminated about 1.5 million barrels of gasoline and other products from the daily total.One of the nation's most important pipelines, the Capline carrying imported crude from New Orleans to Patoka, Ill., for Midwest refiners, was undamaged, said Shell, operator of the line.Still, Dietert predicted higher futures prices for oil and gasoline - and ultimately for consumers - after the government reports data on fuel stockpiles next week. That report will show how much oil companies and their customers have drawn from crude and gasoline inventories to make up for deliveries delayed by Ivan and Jeanne.Colm McDermott, analyst at energy research firm John S. Herold, said consumers might escape without much pain. If the impact of the refinery closures and delivery delays is short-lived, wholesalers, retailers and others in the supply chain might eat price increases rather than pass them on.Reuters reported that Ivan forced the shutdown of eight refineries, or 13% of U.S. capacity. Half of those were restarting Thursday.Offshore, Shell and other producers were flying work crews back out to some evacuated oil and gas platforms and doing aerial damage assessment of others.Shell said its refining and chemical plants in Louisiana had restarted or were never shut down. A Mobile, Ala., chemical plant remained closed, it said.
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Oil prices fell below $48 a barrel as tensions between US forces and rebel fighters in Iraq eased, raising hopes that attacks against the country&#39;s oil infrastructure would subside. US light crude for September delivery settled at $47.86 on the New York ...
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Global oil prices slipped on Thursday as perceptions of a supply overhang outweighed concerns that a hurricane in the Caribbean could hit U.S. offshore oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Oil prices slid on Monday as a  hurricane in the Caribbean was downgraded to a tropical storm,  reducing the threat to U.S. Gulf oil facilities.
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Oil prices fell on Thursday on expectations that the United States might loan some crude to U.S. refiners from its strategic petroleum reserve after weather-related disruptions led to a big dip in supplies.
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Oil prices eased on Friday as a hurricane subsided in the Gulf of Mexico, although prices held near the previous day's record high on supply worries ahead of peak winter demand.
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Oil prices fell more than 3 percent on  Monday as forecasts of a return to mild winter weather in the  United States eased fears that thin heating fuel stockpiles  could prove inadequate.
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Florida's power and telecommunications infrastructure suffered a serious blow when Hurricane Frances blew in over Labor Day weekend. Portable cellular phone service stations and generators offer only a temporary fix. By Jacob Ogles.
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Oil prices on Monday continued a  retreat from record highs after tropical storm Ingrid faded in  the Atlantic over the weekend, soothing fears it could hit Gulf  of Mexico crude production and refining.
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FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Thousands of Floridians beginning the recovery process in the destructive path of Hurricane Frances were hampered by long lines, congested highways and sticky heat as the White House and teams of relief workers promised that help was on the way...
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Hurricane Frances is expected to be  less costly for insurers than feared, though high winds and  flooding generated billions of dollars in damage in Florida and  brought the state to a virtual standstill during a three-day  holiday weekend.
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WASHINGTON -- Oil prices reached $53 US a barrel yesterday and have advanced more than 20 per cent in a month, largely because hurricane-hobbled output in the Gulf of Mexico has not been restored as quickly as expected.