Oil retraces to below US$60

LONDON – Oil prices fell below US$60 yesterday amid signs of growing petroleum inventories and after BP PLC said it had permission to restart the eastern half of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field.

“Hedge funds and investors have been bailing out because geopolitical tensions have eased and they also realise that inventories are high during this period of seasonally weak demand at the end of summer,” said analyst, Victor Shum. Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 84 cents to US$59,71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe.November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange dropped 85 cents to US$59,56 a barrel.BP PLC said Friday it would restart a portion of its Prudhoe Bay eastern operating area, as it conducts an inspection of the crude-oil pipeline.A leak in March at Prudhoe Bay spilled of up to 267 000 gallons, the largest in the history of oil production on Alaska’s North Slope.Oil prices have fallen since the beginning of the month on the lack of developments in the standoff between the United Nations and Iran, who defied the UN’s August 31 deadline to stop enriching uranium that could be used to produce nuclear weapons.The high prices in July and August were largely fuelled by concern over the possibility that Iran could disrupt oil supply if sanctions were imposed or if the month-long conflict between Lebanon and Israel escalated.Nampa-APLight, sweet crude for November delivery fell 84 cents to US$59,71 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe.November Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange dropped 85 cents to US$59,56 a barrel.BP PLC said Friday it would restart a portion of its Prudhoe Bay eastern operating area, as it conducts an inspection of the crude-oil pipeline.A leak in March at Prudhoe Bay spilled of up to 267 000 gallons, the largest in the history of oil production on Alaska’s North Slope.Oil prices have fallen since the beginning of the month on the lack of developments in the standoff between the United Nations and Iran, who defied the UN’s August 31 deadline to stop enriching uranium that could be used to produce nuclear weapons.The high prices in July and August were largely fuelled by concern over the possibility that Iran could disrupt oil supply if sanctions were imposed or if the month-long conflict between Lebanon and Israel escalated.Nampa-AP