Oil slid towards $79 a barrel todayas a hurricane subsided in the Gulf of Mexico.
US crude for October dropped 42 cents to $79.67 a barrel earlier this morning, having settled up 18 cents in New York yesterday, when prices hit a record of $80.20 a barrel. London Brent crude for November lost 27 cents to $76.85.
US gasoline futures eased 0.4 per cent after leading gains yesterday, as Hurricane Humberto was downgraded to a tropical storm after shutting oil shipping channels and three refineries when it made landfall in Texas.
Oil prices are still up 31 per cent this year, and traders are looking ahead to the next Gulf of Mexico storm, Tropical Storm Ingrid, which formed last night.
Lower refinery supplies coincided with the start of winter stockpiling for heating fuel in the western hemisphere. US heating oil stocks rose last week but remained about 30 per cent down on last year.
Supplies of crude in the United States fell last week to the lowest level in eight months, while gasoline stocks slid to their lowest in two years.