Oil Little Changed as Tropical Storm Fay Nears Gulf of Mexico (Christian Schmollinger, Grant Smith)

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil traded little changed as a storm near Cuba prompted evacuations from rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for about a fifth of U.S. production. 

Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Transocean Inc. have evacuated workers as Tropical Storm Fay, with maximum sustained winds of almost 60 miles (100 kilometers) an hour, may strengthen to a hurricane before striking Florida's northwestern coast today, the National Hurricane Center said. Crude oil in New York fell to a 15-week low on Aug. 15, its second consecutive weekly decline.

{xtypo_quote_left} Speculative short positions, or bets prices will fall, outnumbered long positions by 9,130 contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the Washington-based commission said in its Commitments of Traders report. Net-short positions rose by 3,580 contracts, or 65 percent, from a week earlier. {/xtypo_quote_left} 

Crude oil for September delivery was at $113.54 a barrel, 23 cents lower on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:32 p.m. in London. It earlier gained as much as $1.58, or 1.4 percent, to $115.35.

``After oil plumbed new lows at the end of last week, Storm Fay caused a recovery in prices,'' said Christopher Bellew, a senior broker at Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. ``Much depends on how it develops and whether it threatens U.S. production or refineries.''

Prices have declined 22 percent from the record $147.27 a barrel reached on July 11 as the dollar rose for a fifth week against the euro and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries warned of risks to world demand from the slowing global economy.

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