Oil Storms

Oil surges on Wilma worries
Concerns about waning demand were eclipsedn Monday by Tropical Storm Wilma, located 155 miles southeast of Grand Cayman, which the U.S. National Hurricane Center said could move into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico by the end of this week. But it also warned that directional currents were weak and "erratic motion" was possible in the coming days.
"It certainly could have an impact on the production and refineries that are up and running today and it certainly would have an impact on the recovery," ConocoPhillips (COP.N) Chairman Jim Mulva told Reuters on Sunday.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through the Gulf and into the coast in August and September, sharply curtailing oil and gas production as well as refinery operations.
As of Friday, some 67 percent of U.S. oil production from the region remained shut while nearly 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity, or 1.63 million barrels per day (bpd), was also idle, keeping traders on edge over tightening oil product supplies.
The new named storm is this year's 21st, tying a record from 1933 with a month and a half still left in the Atlantic basin hurricane season.

Concern about Iran
Geopolitical anxiety moved up a notch in OPEC-member Iran, where five people were killed and more than 80 wounded when homemade bombs detonated in garbage bins Saturday. "We are very suspicious about the role of British forces in perpetrating such terrorist acts," the ISNA student news agency quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying.
Britain, which has more than 8,000 troops across the border in southern Iraq, has denied any link with the bombs or with a string of attacks this year in Khuzestan province, the center of Iran's oil industry. But the incident has increased tensions.
Oil traders have been on tenterhooks over Iran since the summer as Tehran's persistent pursuit of its controversial nuclear program puts it at odds with the United States, but analysts said Washington might be reluctant to press the issue.