Oil prices advance as traders monitor Hurricane Felix
World oil prices climbed today as traders worried that Hurricane Felix might yet force vital oil rigs in offshore Mexico to shut down.
By Agencies |
LONDON: World oil prices climbed today as traders worried that Hurricane Felix might yet force vital oil rigs in offshore Mexico to shut down.
Trading remained somewhat subdued, however, owing to a public holiday in the United States.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for October delivery rose 40 cents to 73.09 dollars per barrel.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, gained 19 cents to 74.23 dollars per barrel.
"Oil prices pushed even higher ... after a tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean was upgraded to a Category 5 storm and became Hurricane Felix," said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
Hurricane Felix became the second hurricane of the Atlantic storm season on Saturday.
A potentially catastrophic Felix ripped across the warm waters of the Caribbean today towards Honduras and Belize after damaging homes and power lines in Grenada.
At 0900 GMT the centre of Felix was located some 445 kilometers south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, packing winds of 270 kilometers per hour, with higher gusts, the Florida-based National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.
Felix is forecast to head for Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where it could make landfall on Wednesday.
Traders are concerned because Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex may be forced to shut down offshore energy production again.
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