Oil falls below $96 as Ike damage looks light

Oil prices fell to $95 a barrel on Monday after Hurricane Ike inflicted minimal damage to oil installations on the Texas coast.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery was off $5.76 a barrel to $95.42 early Monday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 31 cents on Friday to settle at $101.18 after dropping as low as $99.99 a barrel. Before that, the last time Nymex crude traded below the $100 mark was April 2.

“Now that Ike has come and gone, initial reports indicate no real damage to the oil infrastructure in the Gulf coast area,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore.

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