LONDON, Oct 18: World oil prices sank on Tuesday as Hurricane Wilma’s path through the Atantic looked set to miss battered platforms and refineries on the US Gulf Coast, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, lost 96 cents to $63.40 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for December delivery shed $1.25 to $59.32 per barrel.

“The hurricane has changed direction, swinging east,” said Bache Financial trader Christopher Bellew.

“It looks now as it is more likely to brush the southern tip of Florida and not threaten so much the production and refining in Louisiana and Texas.”

The tropical storm strengthened into the 12th hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic season on Tuesday, the National Hurricane Centre said.

Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said that despite Wilma “steering away from US Gulf of Mexico and toward the Florida panhandle, the return to production of oil output and refinery capacity in the region remains slow.”

Oil refineries in the area have yet to recover from Katrina in late August and Rita about three weeks later.

After Katrina, crude futures hit a record $70.85 in New York and $68.89 in London.—AFP