Crude prices retreat as Hurricane Emily weakens
Crude oil futures declined on Monday amid easing concerns about disruption of production in Mexico due to Hurricane Emily.
The second hurricane of the season has so far missed some oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico but had threatened to disrupt output in Venezuela and Mexico itself.
But Emily weakened as it passed Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, to sighs of relief from traders. They had expected worse disruptions just when the global crude market has virtually no spare capacity.
By late morning in New York, West Texas Intermediate for August delivery was trading $1.09 lower at $57 a barrel. On London’s International Petroleum Exchange, Brent for September delivery fell $1.06 to $56.55 a barrel.
The decline came as leading producers said growth in global demand for crude would fall next year to 1.9 per cent, or about 1.5m barrels a day. The estimate came in a report from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which put the slowing demand growth down to the impact of higher prices. Nymex futures reached a nominal record high of $62.10 on July 7.
More: news.ft.com
Hurricane Emily Weakens Slightly, On Course for Mexico
Weather Forecasters say Hurricane Emily has weakened slightly but may strengthen again Tuesday as it spins towards towards Mexico.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Emily's winds are near 150 kilometers an hour with higher gusts, making it a category one storm. It is moving west-northwest at about 24 kilometers per hour.
Forcasters predict the storm's center will be near Mexico's northeast coast by late Tuesday.
Emily battered beach resorts in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula Monday knocking out power lines, downing trees and causing tens of thousands to flee. Officials say Cozumel, a popular diving destination, was
Crude oil rises as Emily hits Mexico Markets expect sharp decline in U.S. oil supplies
Crude-oil futures gained Wednesday as Hurricane Emily crashed into Mexico and disrupted production in the area. Traders also positioned themselves ahead of the latest weekly U.S. supplies data.
August-dated crude oil rose 44 cents to $57.90 a barrel in the electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Hurricane Emily came ashore on the northeastern coast of Mexico, about 80 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border, on Wednesday, returning to category three-level strength after earlier weakening to a category one storm.
The hurricane is expected to work
UPDATE 2-Mexico's Pemex resumes full production after Emily
Mexico resumed its full production of crude oil on Friday by bringing its wells in the Gulf of Mexico back on tap after they were closed by a powerful hurricane, state oil monopoly Pemex said.
Pemex slashed output and halted exports as Hurricane Emily pounded the Yucatan Peninsula and then moved into the Gulf of Mexico earlier this week.
The storm shut down 2.95 million barrels of day of crude oil as well as 1.87 million bpd of exports, the bulk of them to the United States.
Pemex typically produces about 3.4 million bpd of crude,
Oil Falls as Hurricane Concern Eases, Mexico May Resume Output
Crude oil declined for a fourth day in five as concern eased that Hurricane Emily will disrupt U.S. supplies and on expectations that Mexico will resume output from its biggest fields tomorrow.
Emily weakened to Category 1 and is headed for an area on Mexico's northeast coast where there are no oil platforms. Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly, said yesterday it expects production in the Campeche Sound will resume tomorrow after a three-day shutdown of 2.95 million barrels a day, or 86 percent of the country's output.
``I believe
All Gulf of Mexico crude prod halted
Essentially all Gulf of Mexico crude oil production and 30 percent of U.S. oil refinery production was shut as Hurricane Rita approached the Texas and Louisiana coasts.
Oil prices dropped Friday afternoon as Rita was downgraded to a Category 3 at maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
About 72 percent of natural gas production was shut in by Friday, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said.
The MMS said 99.1 percent of crude production was shut.
The storm has forced shut 15 big U.S. refineries, adding to the four that had remained shut after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Emily may hit eastern Mexico
authorities warned Thursday the inhabitants of Yucatan Peninsula, east of the country, about the possibility that hurricane Emily hits the area on Sunday.
The National Meteorological Service (SMN) said in a statement that Emily is in the Caribbean, 2,700 km off the Mexican littoral.
The hurricane has sustained gusts of wind of 160 km per hour, even reaching 185, with the possibility of further increasing.
The Civil Protection authorities told the inhabitants of the states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatan to
Crude Oil Is Little Changed as U.S. Gulf of Mexico Output Drops
Crude oil was little changed, rebounding from the session's lows, after a government report showed that U.S. oil production fell in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil production was 901,726 barrels below pre-storm levels, almost 5 percent more than reported yesterday, the Minerals Management Service said in a daily report. Prices declined earlier today on an Energy Department report that showed U.S. supplies of crude oil and petroleum products declined less than expected in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
``There are obviously still some problems out in the Gulf,''
Mexico reports death from Emily
After enduring four days of battering from Hurricane Emily, Mexican authorities on Friday reported the first death from a storm that destroyed thousands of buildings and drove 90,000 people from their homes.
The report of a woman swept away by floodwaters in the northern city of San Pedro Garza Garcia came just as President Vicente Fox toured the devastation caused by the hurricane, whose winds began raking the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula on Sunday.
The evacuation of tens of thousands of people in the Yucatan area and along Mexico's northern Gulf coast helped avoid
Canadians say tour operators in Mexico let them down
Weary Canadian tourists returning home from Mexico say the weather was bad thanks to hurricane Emily, but the lack of help from their tour operators was even worse.
"It was horrible. It was scary," Gracia Agostinho told CBC News in Montreal on Tuesday as she and her family returned home.
"It was the longest night of my life," she said, describing how her family huddled in a hotel bathroom while
Hurricane Emily roared by.
More: cbc.ca
Mexico Fears Flooding From Hurricane Emily
Hurricane Emily swept ashore Wednesday and weakened, but it still threatened to unleash flash floods and landslides in the mountains after pounding the coast with 125 mph winds and forcing thousands along the Gulf of Mexico to flee.
The eye of the week-old hurricane came ashore before dawn near San Fernando, about 75 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Emily's winds and torrential rains knocked out power, shredded metal roofs and shattered plate-glass windows.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. Thousands of residents and tourists had been ordered to evacuate homes and
