Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell to a five-month low below $106 as oil companies prepared to resume production from rigs closed by Hurricane Gustav.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and ConocoPhillips said they were inspecting offshore U.S. Gulf platforms today. Oil, down more than $40 from its July record, dropped as Gustav spared U.S. Gulf states the destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

``The absence of serious structural damage from Gustav when the market was braced for the worst has caused prices to turn decisively downwards,'' said Christopher Bellew, a senior broker at Bache Commodities Ltd. in London. ``As technical selling takes hold, it looks likely we'll breach $100.''

Crude oil for October delivery fell as low as $105.46 a barrel, down 8.7 percent from the close of Aug. 29 on the New York Mercantile Exchange and the lowest since April 4. The contract traded at $108.44 at 12:40 p.m. London time.

Today's trading is combined with yesterday's for settlement purposes because of the Labor Day holiday in the U.S.

Natural gas for October delivery dropped 8 percent to $7.308 per million British thermal units, while gasoline futures fell 11.7 percent to $2.6584 a gallon.

Shell, Europe's largest oil company, plans to send a limited number of workers to its offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, the company said in a statement.

`Minor Damage'

Louisiana refineries shut down by Hurricane Gustav may take about 10 days to resume operations because of a lack of power, according to companies include Marathon Oil Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.

Exxon Mobil shut Baton Rouge, its second-largest U.S. refinery, after Gustav's winds cut power to the Louisiana-based plant, according to an advisory on the company's Web site.

ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. refiner, said its 247,000 barrel-a-day Alliance refinery in southern Louisiana sustained ``minor damage'' and a complete assessment of the refinery would be made later today, spokesman Bill Tanner said by telephone.

Workers from more than 70 percent of the platforms and rigs in the Gulf were evacuated as Gustav approached, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service. All of the area's 1.3 million barrels a day of oil and 95 percent of its gas, or 7.06 billion cubic feet, were shut.

Oil's 26 percent slide from its July 11 record of $147.27 a barrel is a ``symptom'' of economic slowdown in the U.S. and Europe and likely to continue over the next six months, investor Marc Faber said in a television interview in Bangkok.

Faber reiterated his forecast that the second half of 2008 won't be ``favorable'' for commodities.

Storm Downgrade

Prices jumped to $118 yesterday as Gustav crossed the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 4 hurricane, the second-highest ranking. The storm diminished as it neared shore southwest of New Orleans and was subsequently downgraded to Category 2.

The storm's winds slowed to about 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour) at about 4 a.m. local time, the National Hurricane. Gustav was about 135 miles northwest of Lafayette, Louisiana, and moving northwest at almost 10 mph, the center said.

As much as 20 percent of oil and gas production that was shut because of Hurricane Gustav may be restored by this weekend, Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal said yesterday at a press conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

``With the storm passed and some relative geopolitical quiescence,'' prices may fall further, said Michael Fitzpatrick, MF Global Ltd.'s vice president for energy risk. The view that ``demand going forward will contract because of a global economic slowdown'' will hold sway, he said in a radio interview.

Brent crude oil for October settlement fell as much as $5.27, or 4.8 percent, to $104.14 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe Exchange. It was at $106.79 at 11 a.m. London time. The contract had risen as high as $110.45 today.

To contact the reporters on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 2, 2008 08:37 EDT