Sam Fletcher
Senior Writer
HOUSTON, July 11 -- Energy prices fell July 8 as Hurricane Dennis veered east, away from the primary oil and natural gas producing area in the central Gulf of Mexico, to strike Florida.
Dennis came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane at Santa Rosa Island in the Florida panhandle, less than 50 miles of where the destructive Hurricane Ivan—also a Category 3 storm—struck last September.
The US Minerals Management Service said July 11 that 359 offshore platforms and 86 rigs were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Dennis. It said production of 1.4 million b/d of oil and more than 6 bcfd of natural gas had been shut in.
Crews were returning to offshore facilities, and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port was scheduled to resume offloading imported crude on July 11. However, industry officials said it would take several days to bring production back to pre-storm levels. LOOP halted offloading tankers on July 9 but continued supplying refiners from onshore storage.
By July 11, however, the National Hurricane Center was monitoring another tropical system that appeared headed for the Caribbean.
Energy prices
The August contract for benchmark US light, sweet crudes closed at $59.63/bbl, down by $1.10 for the day, after trading as high as $61.90/bbl July 8 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The September contract fell by $1.04 to $60.46/bbl. On the US spot market, West Texas intermediate at Cushing, Okla., was down by $1.10 to $59.64/bbl.
Heating oil for August delivery dropped 5.68¢ to $1.72/gal on NYMEX. Gasoline for the same month was down by 4.22¢ to $1.76/gal. However, the August contract for natural gas increased by 7.4¢ to $7.47/MMbtu, "but gave back most of the early gains [in that session] as the level of anxiety ebbed on Hurricane Dennis," said analysts at Enerfax Daily in a July 11 report.
In London, the August contract for North Sea Brent fell by $1.20 to $58.08/bbl on the International Petroleum Exchange.
However, the average price for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' basket of eleven benchmark crudes inched up by 12¢ to $54.94/bbl on July 8.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]
