Crude oil prices continued to fall Monday after Hurricane Dennis missed the oil facilities off the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for August delivery fell 71 cents to end at 58.92 dollars a barrel. Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the August Brent declined 76 cents to settle at 57.44 dollars per barrel.

Oil companies began yesterday to return crews that were evacuated from offshore rigs and platforms. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest IS import terminal, began unloading cargoes from tankers today after a two-day closure. Hurricane Dennis had come ashore on the Florida and would not have the same impacts on oil supplies in the states along the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Ivan did last year.

However, Claude Mandil, executive director of the International Energy Agency, said oil prices were "much too high" and the market "needs more inventories because of uncertainties" with supply.

Source: Xinhua