Oil trades below $100 on limited damage from Ike

World oil traded below $100 in Asia today after early assessments showed the damage to US oil platforms by Hurricane Ike was not as bad as first feared, analysts said.        

Prices were also capped by jitters over the state of global financial markets as a consortium of banks announced plans yesterday to provide $70 billion in credit to offset a possible squeeze with the anticipated collapse of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers, they said.        

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, was at $99.05 a barrel.

It closed at $101.18 Friday and had reached as low as $98.51 yesterday when the New York Mercantile Exchange held a special trading session due to Hurricane Ike.        

 

Brent North Sea crude for October delivery lost $1.56 from Friday's close to $96.02. US officials said yesterday Ike, which slammed the US Gulf Coast on Saturday, damaged about 10 oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico where major energy installations are located.   
     
"The initial perception is that there hasn't been much structural damage to oil and refinery infrastructure," said David Moore, a Sydney-based commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.        

"The other thing is maybe that oil fundamentals have become a bit easier... I think there is an underlying bearish sentiment in the market," he said.         

Crude prices are down about a third from record levels of above $147 reached in July as investors grow increasingly pessimistic about weakening energy demand amid signs the global economy is slowing down.