NEW YORK, 24 September 2005 — Oil prices fell sharply on global markets yesterday after Hurricane Rita weakened further, easing fears about major damage to US refineries in Texas, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, fell $2.31 to $64.19 per barrel in closing trades.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery lost $2.16 to $62.44 per barrel in late trades.
The International Energy Agency said it could order another release of emergency fuel reserves, the second in a month, to help the hurricane-battered US oil industry. “We are on alert,” IEA chief Claude Mandil told Reuters.
The Paris-based agency will meet today to assess damage wrought by Rita. The IEA, which groups the world’s industrialized nations, sprang into action early this month releasing fuel after Hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf. Some 99 percent of Gulf of Mexico oil production and 72 percent of natural gas production was halted yesterday as companies abandoned platforms threatened by Hurricane Rita, the government said yesterday.
