* Market focuses on Hurricane Ike
* Fears of storm damage on U.S. oil output resurface
* Saudi Arabia's reticence to cut production
By Felicia Loo
SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Oil prices recovered to
above $101 a barrel on Friday, as the markets kept a watchful
eye on the path of Hurricane Ike that could disrupt refineries
and production in the United States for weeks.
U.S. crude for October delivery <CLc1> rose 45 cents to
$101.37 a barrel by 0256 GMT, having settled down $1.71 a
barrel on Thursday. Prices have fallen to $100.10 on Thursday,
the lowest level since early April.
London Brent <LCOc1> rose 61 cents to $98.25 a barrel,
after dropping to a six-month low of $96.99 the previous day.
"This is a small price correction following heavy falls in
recent days," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at
Commonwealth Bank of Australia from Sydney.
Prices had fallen toward $100 on Thursday amid soft global
energy demand. A report that Saudi Arabia had no plans to cut
output, despite OPEC's agreement this week to trim supply, also
undermined prices. []
But losses were reversed by Hurricane Ike, which nearly
paralysed a quarter of U.S. crude oil production and more than
16 percent of its refining capacity.
Oil markets continued to keep a careful eye on the storm,
Moore said earlier in a daily note.
The storm menaced Houston, the fourth-most populous U.S.
city and hub of the oil industry, sparking worries of fuel
shortages and the damage could leave some coastal refineries
shut for weeks.
Ike was a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (160 kph) winds and
will likely come ashore late on Friday or early on Saturday, as
a dangerous Category 3 storm on the five-step intensity scale
with winds of more than 111 mph (178 kph), the National
Hurricane Center said. []
The U.S. energy sector has already been forced to evacuate
workers and batten down refineries at least four times so far
this summer due to storms that have pushed into the Gulf of
Mexico, starting with Hurricane Dolly in mid-July.
Storms this year have cut more than 15 million barrels of
crude oil production, nearly three-quarters of what the United
States consumes in a day, government data show.
Supporting prices further, the euro rebounded from one-year
lows against the U.S. dollar on Thursday due to comments from
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet that
inflation remained the bank's key focus. []
Oil kingpin Saudi Arabia has no plans to cut oil output at
present unless customer demand falls, Saudi-owned daily Al
Hayat said in an unsourced report on Thursday.
Traders will be looking towards U.S. economic indicators
due out later on Friday including the August Producer Price
Index, August retail sales data and the Economic Cycle Research
Institute's weekly index, to gauge how the economy of the
world's largest oil consumer is fairing. []
(Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
