As tropical storm Ida weakened along with a dip in the US dollar, oil prices rose past US$79/barrel. Earlier in the day, Ida had been listed as a Category 1 hurricane and was estimated to be capable of taking off 1.3 million barrels of oil from the markets.
But later the US National Hurricane Center downgraded Ida to a tropical storm when its top sustained winds fell to levels of 70 mph and its direction seemed to have altered to east of the most crowded energy production area. However, Ida has caused disruption in oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico. It is difficult to determine what proportion of the oil rally is related to the dollar dip and to Ida.
Benchmark crude for December delivery rose to US$79.2 a barrel on the Nymex. In London, Brent crude for December delivery dipped to US $77.3 on the ICE Futures exchange.
11-Nov-09 
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