LONDON—Oil futures fell on lessening concerns that a tropical storm will disrupt crude-oil production and shipping in the Gulf of Mexico.
But prices are maintaining most of Friday's sharp gains when the storm, called Alex, first rattled the market.
Not all the weather forecasting models are in agreement about the direction of the storm, pointed out Olivier Jakob, analyst at Petromatrix.
"Many changes can still occur in the next 48 hours and that is why weather markets are volatile, but we start the week with a storm picture that should be if still a concern, a lesser one than at the end of last week," he said.
The front-month August Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange recently traded down 90 cents at $77.22 a barrel. The front-month August contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange, called West Texas Intermediate, was 71 cents lower at $78.15 a barrel.
Money managers cut their net long positions in Nymex crude futures for the week ending June 22, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed Friday. They reduced their net long WTI positions to 79,033, down 12,233 from the previous week. Around half the reduction was caused by cutting long positions and half by adding to short positions.
Meanwhile, European gasoil futures continued to firm, which increased the August gasoil crack by $1.40 to $12.80 a barrel.
U.S. gasoline futures were under pressure in line with crude's slide.
The ICE's gasoil contract for July delivery was $4 lower at $669.25 a metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for July delivery was 2.31 cents down at 214.47 cents a gallon.
Write to Paddy Gourlay at patrick.gourlay@dowjones.com
