Oil prices fell back this morning after this year's seventh tropical storm hit land and Chinese data showed another month of anaemic demand.
US light, sweet crude oil futures traded down 42 cents to $58.23 a barrel having earlier hit $58.89 a barrel, its highest level in a week after Friday's 3 per cent leap. London Brent crude lost 49 cents to $57.09 a barrel.
Prices surged last week as dealers opted to cover short positions ahead of the weekend, fearing a fresh tropical storm might disrupt supplies in the Gulf of Mexico, home to a quarter of US production and nearly all of Mexico's output.
But Tropical Storm Gert made landfall overnight, sparing major facilities after forcing Mexico to shut one of its main export terminals for less than a day.
The market absorbed another batch of relatively weak monthly oil trade data from China, the world's second largest energy consumer, which traders had been counting on to deliver strong growth, keeping oil prices supported well above $50 a barrel.
Although consumption was expected to rise in August after Beijing's retail price rise and yuan revaluation lifted refiners' margins, official June data showed implied demand up only 0.7 per cent, according to Reuters.