Brent oil ends week at $111 on Hurricane, US Fed comments

Brent crude oil futures ended the week’s trading session at $111 a barrel as the US East Coast oil industry scrambled to guard against Hurricane Irene and traders weighed Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke’s assessment of the American economy.

Brent Oil Futures – Closing Price

ICE Brent crude oil futures for October 2011 delivery ended the week’s trading session at $111.07 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange, $2.04 higher than last weeks closing price of $109.03 a barrel.

US Fed Meeting

US Fed Bernanke said in a speech on Friday that the central bank still has stimulus tools, while not providing details or committing to deploying them, adding that the US economy will accelerate after the weakest six months of its recovery without immediate additional stimulus.

Hurricane Irene

Meanwhile, Hurricane Irene weakened from an expected Category 2 or Category 3 storm to Category 1 as it neared the US East Coast this morning.

The hurricane caused relatively little damage to the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands, but the fierce storm was threatening to pound a far larger area this weekend, extending north over the densely populated metropolitan areas of Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York and possibly Boston.

Oil prices spiked back higher in late trading on Friday on fears there will be a disruption in output from East Coast US oil refineries, barge routes or pipelines serving the heavily populated eastern seaboard.

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Brent oil ends week at $111 on Hurricane, US Fed comments