Oil prices fell below US$106 a barrel Tuesday in Asia on expectations a weakening Hurricane Ike may not disrupt Gulf of Mexico drilling and refining operations, the Associated Press reported. Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell 74 cents to US$105.60 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midafternoon in Singapore. The contract inched up 11 cents overnight to settle at US$106.34. The euro and British pound have dropped against the dollar in recent weeks. On Tuesday, the euro weakened slightly Tuesday to US$1.4105 after earlier dropping as low as $1.4045, a level not seen since last October. The pound dipped to US$1.7567 from US$1.7579. The dollar dipped to 107.70 yen from 107.99 yen late Monday. Crude has plunged about US$42, or 29 percent, since surging to a record US$147.27 a barrel on July 11. In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 1.54 cents to US$2.9977 a gallon, while gasoline prices dropped 3.03 cents to US$2.72 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 16.7 cents to US$7.36 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, October Brent crude fell 73 cents to US$102.71 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
