Middle East - Oil slips as Dean seen sparing US plants

London: Oil fell $1 on Monday after forecasts projected Hurricane Dean would skirt to the south of the US Gulf of Mexico that is home to half of US refining capacity and pumps a third of its oil.
US crude was down 97 cents at $71.01 a barrel by 1452 GMT, erasing Friday's rally when the US Federal Reserve cut its discount rate to restore order to financial markets and as Dean menaced.
London Brent crude fell 65 cents to $69.79.
The US National Hurricane Center forecast Dean would remain south of the US portion of the Gulf and cross the Yucatan Peninsula en route to the east coast of Mexico."Barring a sudden northerly veering of the track of the storm, Gulf of Mexico production should be materially unaffected," Citigroup analysts said in a research note.
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But Mexico's Bay of Campeche, home to 70 per cent of Mexican oil output including the giant Cantarell field, was vulnerable to the storm, analysts noted. There are no significant refining operations in the area under threat, however.
Hurricane Dean, a Category 4 storm packing winds of 150 miles (241.4 km) was on a course that would take it very close to the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula later yesterday, the US National Hurricane Centre said. It could strengthen into a Category 5 hurricane within the next 24 hours.
US operators shut around 23,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil output and 54 million cubic feet of natural gas.
Mexico's state oil company Pemex said it had begun evacuating more than 13,000 workers from rigs. It halted shipments of crude oil from the Gulf of Mexico port Dos Bocas as the hurricane approached.
Mexico is among the top crude suppliers to US refiners, with Mexican exports to its neighbour averaging 1.469 million barrels per day (bpd) this year.