World oil prices slid this evening as Hurricane Ida weakened to a tropical storm, easing worries about the potential threat to petrol installations in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Traders also digested the latest oil demand and price forecasts from the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), a global energy watchdog that advises industrialised nations.
US crude eased 26 cents to $79.17 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude slid 17 cents to $77.60. Crude futures had rebounded on Monday due to US dollar weakness and concerns over Hurricane Ida's potential damage.
Elsewhere, the IEA predicted that the oil price, excluding inflation, would be $100 a barrel in 2020 and $115 in 2030, and added that demand would increase by 1% a year.
Global demand would rise from 85 million barrels per day in 2008 to 105 million in 2030, assuming that forthcoming negotiations on global warming in Copenhagen did not result in immediate big changes in energy policies, the IEA forecast.
The average oil price this year would be about $60 a barrel against a background of weak economic activity, according to the IEA.
