Say Again, Tower?

Well, here's a bit of welcome news for a change! Oil prices slid to four-month lows Monday, closing at $110 per barrel in London trading as speculators showed confidence Hurricane Gustav represented little threat to oil rigs and production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Crude prices have pulled back since opening higher, as market participants believe the impact from Hurricane Gustav ... will not be as bad Hurricane Katrina" on oil rigs and production facilities, analyst Nimit Khamar told Agence-France Presse.

Trading in the world's other top oil markets was also down. New York prices slid to under $110, before closing at $111.39 per barrel -- over four dollars lower than Friday's prices.

"The market seems to be of the opinion that the industry is more prepared for such events following the damage wrought during the 2005 hurricane season," Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said Monday. The Gulf accounts for about 1/4 of total oil production in the United States.

Oil prices have been on a welcome nadir since reaching prices as high as $147 this summer, due largely to decreased demand. Alas, that leads to a new concern -- that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will cut production, in order to keep prices from falling below $100 per barrel.

On Monday, several members of OPEC said they will likely vote to keep production at current levels, when the cartel meets next week.

"Probably, we will do nothing," added the head of the Libyan national oil company, Shukri Ghanem. "We think the market is well supplied, if not oversupplied."

And hey, if you can't trust OPEC... right?

FMI: www.opec.org