World oil prices steady ahead of US energy report

SINGAPORE, Sept 4 (AFP) World oil prices held steady in Asian trade today ahead of a weekly US energy stockpiles report expected to give clues about the state of American demand for crude, dealers said. brPrices were little changed even though most US crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico remained off-line, with refinery outages after Hurricane Gustav made landfall Monday. brIn afternoon trade, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, dropped eight cents to 109.27 dollars a barrel while Brent North Sea crude, also for delivery next month, fell by seven cents to 107.99 dollars. brCompared with the trail of destruction left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf in 2005, Gustav's limited damage provided a huge relief, said dealers. brOil prices retained a soft leaning... It appears that Hurricane Gustav did little long-term damage to oil industry infrastructure, said David Moore, a Sydney-based commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. brHurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged or destroyed about 165 of around 4,000 oil platforms in the Gulf. brThe tally of post-Gustav damage to oil and natural gas installations was still underway but the first oil production trickled back on-line. brThe US Department of the Interior said nearly 5.0 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico had restarted Wednesday. brThe department said 95.8 percent of oil production and 91.6 percent of natural gas production remained cut. brNormal production in the region is 1.3 million barrels of crude a day and 210 million cubic meters of natural gas, according to the department. brObviously, demand concerns are outweighing almost every other consideration, said John Kilduff, an analyst at MF Global. brCrude prices have plunged from record highs of more than 147 dollars in early July because of worries about weakening demand, especially in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer. brTraders were awaiting the release of the US government's weekly energy inventory report which provides further clues on the state of US demand.