Crude oil futures fell more than one dollar on Tuesday, as the threat of Hurricane Wilma waned as it looked likely avoid oil facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell to US$63.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude futures for December delivery fell to US$59.80 a barrel on London's International Petroleum Exchange.
However, with the approaching Northern Hemisphere winter and the slow recovery of petroleum output in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, prices are not expected to fall too far. Experts believe that the current surge in oil prices, though noticeable, is likely to prove significantly less consequential to economic growth and inflation as compared with the surge in the 1970s. The world is a lot more energy-efficient now than when the Arab oil embargo triggered the first surge in oil prices in 1973. OPEC expects demand growth for this year to amount to 1.18 million bpd. This is a 17% drop in estimates made previously.
19-Oct-05 
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