* Oil rises as Tropical Storm Gustav forms in Caribbean
* Iran expects OPEC to support prices at Sept. meeting
(Updates throughout with details on tropical storm)
By Matthew Robinson
NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Oil rose on Monday as Tropical
Storm Gustav formed in the Caribbean, stirring concerns that it
could disrupt oil and natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico
as it moves northwest.
Gustav, the seventh tropical storm in the Caribbean this
season, was expected to strengthen and bring hurricane
conditions to parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti within
24 hours. []
U.S. crude <CLc1> settled up 52 cents at $115.11 a barrel
after falling more than 5.4 percent on Friday in the largest
one-day slide since Dec. 27, 2004. Brent crude <LCOc1> gained
11 cents to settle at $114.03 a barrel.
Two of seven forecast tracks show the storm heading toward
the Gulf of Mexico, where the United States has a high
concentration of oil and natural gas production. Four show it
heading toward Guatemala, Belize or the Yucatan Peninsula.
Packing winds near 60 mph as of 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT),
Gustav could strengthen into a hurricane prior to moving over
land, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
The storm was located about 225 miles (362 kilometers)
south-southeast of Port au Prince, Haiti, moving northwest near
14 mph on Monday afternoon.
"The session was lackluster and was looking for
direction when news of the upgrade of Gustav came in and all of
a sudden prices rose," said Gene McGillian, analyst for
Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
Further support on Monday came from ongoing tension between
the West and Russia over Georgia and expectations that oil
exporter group OPEC, which meets on Sept. 9, could trim
production should prices fall further.
Russia's parliament unanimously approved resolutions on
Monday calling for the recognition of two rebel regions of
Georgia as independent states, a move likely to worsen already
strained relations with the West. []
Moscow's military intervention in Georgia has disrupted
some shipments of Azeri oil through Georgia.
Iran's oil minister said on Monday he expected OPEC to work
on preventing the falling trend in crude prices and also to
study oversupply in the market when it meets on Sept. 9 in
Vienna. []
Venezuela said on Friday OPEC should consider cutting oil
production at the meeting if it decides that recent price
declines constitute a sustained downturn.
An OPEC source, however, said, the cartel is likely to keep
oil output policy unchanged. []
Saad al-Shuwaib, the chief executive of Kuwait's state oil
firm, said the OPEC-member is pumping around 2.5 million
barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and aims to boost capacity
to 3 million bpd in the first half of 2009. []
Oil has tumbled from a record high over $147 struck in July
on growing signs demand in the United States and other consumer
nations has faltered due to surging fuel costs.
(Reporting by Matthew Robinson; Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons
in New York, Fayen Wong in Perth and Alex Lawler in London;
editing by Jim Marshall)
