Oil prices were steady on Monday as slow recovery in production and refining disrupted by hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of winter was balanced by slower gasoline demand.
US crude oil was up 4 cents to $66.28 a barrel in Asian trade. London Brent crude gained 15 cents to $63.63 a barrel. A dozen refineries accounting for about 18 percent of US refining capacity remained shut as of Friday after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
The shutdown equals to a daily loss of more than 1.3 million barrels of gasoline production, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) said. "The market has not seen much improvement," said Naohiro Namura, the vice president of derivatives business department at Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo.
"There is a big loss of gasoline production now, and if refinery recoveries are delayed for a long time, it will start crunching heating fuel supplies toward winter."
Washington said last week up to 15 percent of US capacity could be out for at least another couple of weeks. The latest US government figures showed the gasoline stock level was 199.8 million barrels in the week to September 23, down 5.9 million barrels from a year.
But demand for the auto fuel over the past four weeks has averaged almost 3 percent below the year-ago period, government data showed. Heating fuel inventories were 57.2 million barrels in the September 23 week.
The figure was higher than year, but was down 2.5 million barrels from the previous week, at a time when oil companies in the Northern Hemisphere typically start building heating stocks to meet peak winter demand.
Crude oil output from the Gulf of Mexico, nearly completely paralysed after the storms, may also be slow to return due to extensive damage to rigs and undersea pipelines.
As of Friday, 98 percent of crude production and 79 percent of natural gas output was shut in the Gulf of Mexico, home to more than a quarter of US domestic production.
High oil prices, which struck record-highs of $70.85 a barrel in late August, are beginning to hit business and consumer confidence. A Bank of Japan survey showed on Monday that Japanese business confidence gained slightly in the latest quarter but was weaker than expected as rising energy costs dampened sentiment.
A US government report last week showed that consumer spending fell a surprisingly steep 0.5 percent in August, the biggest drop since November 2001.
This came as energy prices pushed US consumer inflation up 0.5 percent, the biggest jump since September 1990. Traders were also watching tensions in Opec exporter Iran, after the UN's nuclear watchdog has recommended Tehran be reported to the Security Council for possible sanctions.
Supplies from France, a major supplier of oil products to European and US markets, could be affected by ongoing strikes.
Port workers in southern France have extended until on Monday a strike that has blocked access to the Lavern and Foes petrochemicals and 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) oil-refining hub.
Royal Dutch Shell said on Friday its 80,000-bpd refinery in the region could cut runs if the strike continued beyond the weekend. A strike that has shut down oil major Total's biggest refinery in northern France has also been extended to Monday.
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