Crude falls after hurricane misses most rigs

Monday, July 11, 2005 | 8:59 a.m.

Crude oil fell after Hurricane Dennis made landfall on the Florida Panhandle, missing rigs and platforms concentrated off the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

Oil companies including Royal Dutch/Shell Group began Sunday to return crews that were evacuated from platforms as Dennis approached the Gulf of Mexico, source of 30 percent of U.S. oil output. The biggest U.S. oil port opened today after a two-day closure.

"Clearly our worst fears were far from realized," said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at Fimat USA in New York. "A lot of the damage premium will now exit the market."

Crude oil for August delivery fell $1.03, or 1.7 percent, to $58.60 a barrel at 10:05 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $62.10 a barrel on Thursday, the highest since trading began in 1983, on concern Dennis might disrupt production for an extended period. Oil is up 47 percent from a year ago.

In London, the August Brent crude-oil futures contract fell $1.05, or 1.8 percent, to $57.15 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange. Brent touched $60.70 a barrel on Thursday, the highest since the contract was introduced in 1988.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. import terminal, began unloading cargoes from tankers today after a two-day closure, a port official said. The port, 20 miles off the Louisiana coast, handles about 1 million barrels of crude-oil imports a day.