Crude drops below $113 as US storm threat abates

London: Oil fell more than a dollar to below $113 a barrel on Monday as a tropical storm looked set to avoid major oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.

US crude fell $1.60 to $112.17 a barrel by 1511 GMT. It settled down $1.24 at $113.77l on Friday, after dipping to $111.34, the lowest since May 1.

London Brent crude dropped by $1.55 to $111.

"The storm is largely irrelevant, there is no shortage of refinery capacity in the US even if it were to damage one of the refineries," said John Kemp, econ-omist at RBS Sempra.

Shell said yesterday it had evacuated 425 non-essential workers from the Gulf but added that it did not expect any impact from the storm on offshore assets and production.

The storm was on Sunday expected to avoid most of the offshore production areas in the Gulf and instead strike the Gulf Coast of Florida today or tomorrow, the US National Hurricane Centre forecast.

Kemp said sentiment remained very bearish following a sell-off last week. The market has fallen by more than 20 per cent below a record high of $147.27 hit on July 11.

Potentially bullish news was being ignored, Kemp added.