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Prices starting to ease:

Signs of life at US Gulf refineries
FLARES have been lit above five of eight refineries along the US Gulf Coast that were closed by Hurricane Katrina - indicating the facilities are preparing to restart. And industry sources say at least four of the facilities will be back online this week. Marathon Petroleum began restart procedures yesterday at its 245,000 bpd refinery in Garyville, Louisiana. Electrical power has been restored at Valero Energy's 185,000 bpd St Charles facility and hopes are to resume production tomorrow. Several other refineries are struggling with repairs and some leaks, but managers are optimistic about an early restart. Chevron said yesterday that damage to its 325,000 bpd Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery "was not catastrophic." But company executives will not make predictions on reopening as they are still trying to locate employees evacuated during the storm. Meanwhile oil and gasoline prices are dropping today on world markets as the energy industry continues to stabilise. Light sweet crude oil for October delivery fell $0.79 by midday in Europe to $66.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, which was closed yesterday for the Labor Day holiday. It closed Friday at $67.57 a barrel. Unleaded gas was down just over four cents to $2.14 a gallon, while heating oil was down nearly three cents to $2.063 a gallon.