Oil sank below $60 to a near three-month low today after Hurricane Wilma missed the storm-battered US oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
US light crude fell as low as $59.76 a barrel, the lowest since July 28th.
Prices were down 61 cents to $60.02 this morning, shedding a gain of 61 cents on Friday on fears Wilma could hinder the recovery of oil operations in the Gulf.
Prices were 15 per cent below the record-high of $70.85 a barrel struck in late August in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. London Brent crude lost 51 cents to $57.97 a barrel.
After devastating Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, Wilma spared oil and natural gas production areas in the Gulf Coast yesterday.
Expectations that high prices will slow oil demand are dampening speculators' appetite, dealers said.
US data also showed a decline in total oil product demand deepening to 3.2 per cent over the past four weeks.
The market also gained supply relief as oil workers in France and Nigeria ended their strikes. Total's Gonfreville oil refinery, the biggest in France, resumed operations on Saturday after workers agreed on Friday to suspend a month-long strike over wages, one of the factors that had helped prices stay well above $60.
Oil exports from OPEC-member Nigeria's 240,000-bpd Brass River tanker terminal resumed at the weekend after protesting unions reached a deal with Italian energy giant Agip to end a three-day disruption.