Oil prices inched lower but held above $66 today on worries that US crude output from the Gulf of Mexico may be slow to return after two hurricanes in a month.
US crude oil prices were down 12 cents to $66.67 a barrel this morning, while London Brent crude shed 18 cents to 63.66 a barrel.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday it had released 15 to 20 million barrels of refined oil products out of 42 to 45 million barrels of oil stocks already put out to help ease US fuel shortages after Hurricane Katrina. The volume of fuel stocks offered was 60 million barrels.
Any decision to offer more would depend on the IEA's assessment of damage from Hurricane Rita - the second major storm to hit the US Gulf area in a month.
Although some refineries are restoring operations, more than three million barrels per day of fuel processing capacity stayed shut in the wake of the hurricanes, and Washington has said up to 15 per cent of US capacity could be out for at least another couple of weeks.
Extended union strikes in France, a leading US gasoline supplier, also dampened the outlook for inflows of much-needed oil products from Europe.
Total's biggest refinery in northern France is already closed, and if operations at a refining hub in the south are affected, over half the country's gasoline and heating oil output would be at risk.