CRUDE prices settled below US$113 a barrel for the first time in over three months yesterday as Tropical Storm Fay steered clear of oil-producing infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery fell 90 cents to settle at US$112.87 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after earlier rising as high as US$115.35. It was the first time crude ended below US$113 since May 1. The contract fell US$1.24 on Friday to settle at US$113.77 a barrel, about US$35, or 24 percent, lower than its trading record of US$147.27, set July 11.

Fay, the sixth named storm of the 2008 Atlantic season, was approaching the Florida Keys after leaving at least eight people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The storm is expected to near hurricane strength later yesterday but does not currently pose a threat to oil platforms in the Gulf, forecasters said.

'The storm's not a concern. It just doesn't look like it's going to do a lot of damage,' said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Illinois.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it evacuated 425 workers from the region as a precaution but said it will redeploy them if the storm remains on its current track. So far during this year's hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, no storm has significantly damaged oil installations in the Gulf.

A slightly weaker dollar compared to the euro kept oil prices from slipping further. A falling dollar typically pushes oil prices higher as investors buy crude and other commodities as hedges against inflation.

Still, analysts said that if the dollar's rising trend continued in coming weeks and months, it likely would limit gains in oil prices.

A forecast from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Friday of lower global oil demand growth helped to keep prices from rising higher.



In its monthly oil report, the organization forecast world appetite for oil this year would grow by 1 million barrels a day, a reduction of 30,000 barrels a day from its previous forecast for demand growth for 2008. It also said growth for 2009 will be 900,000 barrels a day, which it said would be the lowest growth in world demand since 2002.

Demand growth from the major industrialized countries will actually decline, OPEC said, with non-OECD countries accounting for all oil demand growth next year.

'It's another signal that conditions are easing,' Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne.

Uncertainty over the conflict between Russia and Georgia also kept trading erratic earlier Monday, as traders remain nervous that oil supplies in the region could be halted. Russia said it has begun withdrawing troops, but US officials said Moscow has positioned missile launchers in the separatist South Ossetia province.

Oil market traders were also keeping an eye on possible tensions in Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation yesterday.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 3.43 cent to settle at US$3.0848 a gallon, while gasoline prices lost 4.5 cents to settle at US$2.8152 a gallon. Natural gas futures fell 20.4 cents to settle at US$7.888 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, October Brent crude fell 61 cents to settle at US$111.94 a barrel.