Reply #2: Oil slips as traders watch storm [View All]

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil eased to $63 on Wednesday after the previous day's sharp losses, as a new deadly hurricane was expected to miss Gulf of Mexico oil facilities and traders weighed signs of weakening fuel demand.

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Hurricane Wilma was upgraded to a maximum strength Category 5 storm, but its expected path toward southern Florida by Saturday should miss Gulf of Mexico oil rigs and U.S. coastal refineries.

Traders had worried that Wilma could delay recovering U.S. output, battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, ahead of peak winter fuel demand in the northern hemisphere.

Further direction on stock levels and demand will come from U.S. government data due at 1430 GMT, forecast to show a 2.0 million-barrel build in crude stocks but a 1.7 million-barrel drop in distillates, including heating oil.

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