Crude-Oil Prices Slip Below $64 a Barrel

NEW YORK - Crude-oil futures slipped below $64 a barrel Friday, extending a two-week retreat from post-Katrina highs as more Gulf Coast refineries restarted and emergency government reserves reached the market.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell 28 cents to $63.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — down nearly $8 from the record $70.85 set Aug. 30, the day after Katrina smashed into the Gulf Coast.

Gasoline futures also eased, though they remain far above year-ago levels, and heating oil held near $1.90 a gallon as traders weighed the risk of tight winter supplies while 5 percent of U.S. refining capacity stays shut.

The International Energy Agency's release of 60 million barrels of emergency crude and fuel — the first coordinated drawdown in its history — helped break the panic, analysts said, and several companies announced voluntary conservation measures.

"The market has shifted from fear to repair," an energy analyst said. "The question now is whether refiners can come back fast enough to rebuild gasoline stocks before winter heating demand kicks in."

OPEC ministers, meeting in Vienna next week, are expected to keep output quotas unchanged at near-maximum levels. The cartel's president has called the market "well supplied" and blamed the price spike on the refining bottleneck, not crude scarcity.

Traders are also watching Tropical Storm Ophelia, which has stayed offshore, and a hurricane season with months left to run. "One more Gulf landfall on the wrong refinery and we are right back at $70," a broker said.

Analysts surveyed by the wire expect average prices to stay above $60 through year-end, a level that seemed unthinkable when the year began near $42.