SINGAPORE - Oil prices rose Monday in Asia as Hurricane Ike looked poised to slam into the Gulf of Mexico later this week, delaying efforts to bring oil and gas production back online in a region still recovering from Hurricane Gustav. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose $1.25 to $107.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midafternoon in Singapore. The contract fell Friday by $1.66 to settle at $106.23, a five-month low.
Royal Dutch Shell said it would keep staffing at its offshore Gulf installations, which it reduced ahead of Gustav last week, to a minimum as it monitors Ike.
"Companies are caught between restarting production after Gustav and making preparations for Ike," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "These storms are very unpredictable, but Ike's likely movement puts it into the Gulf area."
Early Monday, Ike was a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds near 120 mph (193 kph), located about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) east of Punto de Sama on eastern Cuba's coast, and moving west at 14 mph (22.5 kph). It was forecast to track over Cuba, re-emerging over the island's western coast Tuesday morning about 100 miles south of Key West as a Category 1.
Investors also waited to see what action OPEC might take at its meeting Tuesday in Vienna. Some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has indicated it may take action to defend the $100 a barrel level.
Iran's oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, said Monday that there is too much crude on the market, adding that OPEC is reviewing whether supply exceeds demand before deciding whether to cut back production.
Crude has plunged about $38, or 26 percent, since surging to a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 5.17 cents to $3.0345 a gallon, while gasoline prices jumped 8.22 cents to $2.7683 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery gained 21.1 cents to $7.66 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, October Brent crude rose $1.50 to $105.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Royal Dutch Shell said it would keep staffing at its offshore Gulf installations, which it reduced ahead of Gustav last week, to a minimum as it monitors Ike.
"Companies are caught between restarting production after Gustav and making preparations for Ike," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "These storms are very unpredictable, but Ike's likely movement puts it into the Gulf area."
Early Monday, Ike was a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds near 120 mph (193 kph), located about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) east of Punto de Sama on eastern Cuba's coast, and moving west at 14 mph (22.5 kph). It was forecast to track over Cuba, re-emerging over the island's western coast Tuesday morning about 100 miles south of Key West as a Category 1.
Investors also waited to see what action OPEC might take at its meeting Tuesday in Vienna. Some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has indicated it may take action to defend the $100 a barrel level.
Iran's oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, said Monday that there is too much crude on the market, adding that OPEC is reviewing whether supply exceeds demand before deciding whether to cut back production.
Crude has plunged about $38, or 26 percent, since surging to a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 5.17 cents to $3.0345 a gallon, while gasoline prices jumped 8.22 cents to $2.7683 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery gained 21.1 cents to $7.66 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, October Brent crude rose $1.50 to $105.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
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