•Crude futures slumped Monday on news that oil infrastructure in the US Gulf had escaped significant damage in the wake of Hurricane Ike, as well as the impact of financial markets feeding into commodities.

•"Catastrophic as Ike was, particularly for low-lying costal areas in Texas, the system appeared to miss vital concentrations of oil and petrochemical refineries in the state," MF Global's Ed Meir said in a report.

•Despite the shut-ins and disruptions to refinery output, refined products markets fell heavily with particular weakness in NYMEX gasoline. "Hurricanes are usually very supportive for products, especially if they damage LOOP [the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port], but we have had two threatening hurricanes and prices have come off. The gasoline crack has lost $3/b since Friday when it settled at $15/b", a London-based broker said.

Updated: September 15, 2008