Hurricane SeasonThe National Post reports in its Wednesday, Aug. 9, edition that a succession of top United States forecasters have downgraded this year's hurricane season. The Post's Weather Watch column reports that oil analysts, however, do not expect soaring crude oil prices to give up their "hurricane premium" just yet. "The problem is that it only takes one hurricane to cause a major problem for the oil industry," said Tim Evans, analyst at Citigroup Global Markets in New York. "And the peak activity tends to be later in the summer." Last year's record hurricane season temporarily knocked out a quarter of U.S. crude and fuel production. As of June, about 12 per cent of the Gulf of Mexico's crude oil production remained shut from the record 2005 storm season. Also remaining offline is 9 per cent of the region's natural gas production.
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