Yesterday’s Labor Day holiday marks the end of the peak driving season. Refiners often idle units for maintenance in September and October as gasoline demand drops and  before heating-oil use increases. U.S. crude inventories last week rose to the highest point since June, the Energy Department said.

“The market is reflecting on the fundamentals, the oversupply,” said , managing director at Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney. “The summer drive time was a complete flop.”

The October contract fell 70 cents, or 1 percent, from the Sept. 3 close to $73.90 a  barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:01 a.m. Sydney time. Prices are down 6.9 percent this year. Yesterday’s electronic trades are booked with today’s transactions for settlement purposes because there was no floor  trading during the Labor Day holiday.

Tropical Storm Hermine, near the western end of the Gulf of Mexico, may make landfall  today. The weather system has sustained winds of about 60 miles (95 kilometers) per hour, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a website advisory just before 5 p.m. New York time.

Brent crude for October settlement dropped 23 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $76.64 a barrel  on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange in London. The contract gained 20 cents, or 0.3 percent,  to settle at $76.87 yesterday.



Pilgrim Oil Group together with oil for less.com bringing you the most up-to-date , daily oil price and today's oil price.