Ida, who became a Category 1 hurricane, became a tropical storm on Monday and by Tuesday had already lost more strength.
Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell and Anadarko reported that their facilities were undamaged, indicating that the flights to take workers back to platforms and rigs begin on Tuesday.
reference crude for December delivery fell 38 cents , reaching $ 79.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Even on Monday, when Ida was a potential threat to rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, it seemed that the effects of the weak dollar played a significant role as oil prices rose two dollars to 79.43.
At the beginning of the week the dollar fell to $ 1.50 before the euro, the first time that the dollar has been so weak since July. Since oil is priced in dollars, investors with hard currency can buy oil at relatively bargain prices.
Although at this time the U.S. has huge oil reserves, the weak dollar will allows investors to buy oil and pay for its storage, selling it months later when the price goes up.
However, the greenback gained ground on Tuesday and oil prices fell.
Natural gas for December delivery fell 4%, equivalent to 20.3 cents, reaching $ 4.467 per 1,000 cubic feet on Nymex.
In other contributions, heating oil lost a cent to finish at $ 2.0523 a gallon, while gasoline for December fell less than a penny to close at $ 1.9774 a gallon.
In London, Brent North Sea to the same month fell 27 cents, ending at $ 76.50 on the ICE Futures exchange.
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The Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
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