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London: Oil tumbled to below $136 on Tuesday, dropping by about $10 this week, as the dollar gained and concern eased over an Atlantic hurricane.
US light crude fell more than $6 to as low as $135.14 a barrel, the lowest since June 26. It was trading $5.98 lower at $135.39 by 1514 GMT.
London Brent crude was trading $6.05 down at $135.82.
Oil has fallen from a record high of $145.85 hit last week.
Hurricane Bertha became a "major" hurricane on Monday, but none of the computer models used to predict storm tracks indicated it would steer toward the Gulf, the focus of the US oil and gas industry.
With the onset of the Atlantic hurricane season this year, oil traders will be watching for any signs of a storm that could disrupt Gulf oil production and refining operations.
Negative impact
"It seems the tone is easing for now and the hurricane is gone," a broker said.
The broker added the gain in the dollar triggered technical sales due to a lack of fresh news related to oil supply and demand.
The dollar rebounded from earlier losses yesterday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the US central bank may keep an emergency lending facility open beyond the end of the year for big Wall Street firms.
But analysts said the market focus would shift later this week to US weekly oil statistics and a monthly report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which will give a fresh look at the demand-supply situation amid a slowing world economy.
"We have US weekly stats tomorrow and the IEA report comes up a day after," said Mike Wittner, the head of oil research with Societe Generale.
"Also in a short term, negative impact may be refining margins. Margins are weaker now and that means oil refiners are not rushing to buy crude oil."
The weekly US oil inventory data, which will include gasoline demand during the long weekend for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, will be released on Wednesday.
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