•At 11:23 London time, front-month October ICE Brent futures were holding above $73/barrel, down 28 cents to $73.13/b, while in the US the October contract for NYMEX WTI was down 9 cents to $73.95/b. "The market so far this morning has been quite dead," a London-based trader said. "Hurricane Felix looks like it will not have any material impact on oil and gas production in the region, so I guess that the market is relieved about that and shedding some of the gains built around the hurricane supply disruption fears," he added.

•Meanwhile, ahead of the OPEC meeting in Vienna next week, comments made by ministers suggest that there will not be a significant change in output policy.

Updated: September 4, 2007