Oil trades below $100 in Asia
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
SINGAPORE, Sept 15 (AFP): World oil traded below 100 dollars 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 Sunday to provide 70 billion dollars 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 dollars a barrel. It closed at 101.18 Friday and had reached as low as 98.51 on Sunday 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 dollars from Friday's close to 96.02 dollars.
US officials said Sunday 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.
Crude prices are down about a third from record levels of above 147 dollars reached in July as investors grow increasingly pessimistic about weakening energy demand amid signs the global economy is slowing down.
Fuelling investors' concerns was the announcement Sunday that the 10-bank consortium was planning to provide 70 billion dollars to help offset a credit squeeze amid the anticipated collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, said in a joint statement they "initiated a series of actions to help enhance liquidity and mitigate the unprecedented volatility and other challenges affecting global equity and debt markets."
The announcement came moments after the Federal Reserve announced new steps to ease access to emergency credit for struggling financial companies, by broadening the collateral to be used for central bank loans.
The unusual Sunday moves came as financial markets braced for a possible collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose failure could send shockwaves throughout the international financial system.
The former Wall Street titan looks to be in near collapse and is struggling to find a buyer as it desperately needs a capital injection after losing an estimated 3.9 billion dollars in its fiscal third quarter amid fresh writedowns on mortgage assets.
Prices were also capped by jitters over the state of global financial markets as a consortium of banks announced plans Sunday to provide 70 billion dollars 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 dollars a barrel. It closed at 101.18 Friday and had reached as low as 98.51 on Sunday 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 dollars from Friday's close to 96.02 dollars.
US officials said Sunday 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.
Crude prices are down about a third from record levels of above 147 dollars reached in July as investors grow increasingly pessimistic about weakening energy demand amid signs the global economy is slowing down.
Fuelling investors' concerns was the announcement Sunday that the 10-bank consortium was planning to provide 70 billion dollars to help offset a credit squeeze amid the anticipated collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Bank of America, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and UBS, said in a joint statement they "initiated a series of actions to help enhance liquidity and mitigate the unprecedented volatility and other challenges affecting global equity and debt markets."
The announcement came moments after the Federal Reserve announced new steps to ease access to emergency credit for struggling financial companies, by broadening the collateral to be used for central bank loans.
The unusual Sunday moves came as financial markets braced for a possible collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose failure could send shockwaves throughout the international financial system.
The former Wall Street titan looks to be in near collapse and is struggling to find a buyer as it desperately needs a capital injection after losing an estimated 3.9 billion dollars in its fiscal third quarter amid fresh writedowns on mortgage assets.