Oil prices rose on Wednesday, gaining back a small portion of losses the last three sessions that were driven by easing supply concerns.
Traders were keeping an eye on three tropical weather systems, one in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, one entering the Caribbean Sea and one.
Tropical Storm Karen, in the central Atlantic. But investors are not convinced any of the three directly threaten critical oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 62 cents to $80.15 a barrel by midday in European trading.
On Tuesday, the contract fell $1.42 to settle at $79.53 a barrel, Reuters recalled.
The drop marked the third consecutive day of decline following eight straight sessions in which oil futures hit new records.
After floor trading ended Tuesday in the United States, the federal Minerals Management Service said all evacuations from an earlier storm threat had ended from the Gulf of Mexico�s production platforms and drilling rigs. Almost all of the Gulf�s oil and gas production was back on line, the agency said.
At the height of the evacuations over the past weekend, 100 production platforms and 14 drilling rigs had been evacuated and 58 per cent of the normal daily oil production and 25 per cent of the normal gas production had been interrupted.
The recent three-day decline in prices ignited debate among analysts over whether the move is a correction in a bull market or the beginning of a long-term decline in crude prices.
There was little news affecting oil prices Tuesday as oil prices continued to drop from near $84 a barrel last week, analysts said.
Sep272007