July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell for a third day after Hurricane Dennis missed the rigs and platforms concentrated off the Texas and Louisiana coasts.

Oil companies including Royal Dutch/Shell Group began yesterday to return crews that were evacuated from offshore facilities as Dennis approached the Gulf of Mexico, source of 30 percent of U.S. oil output. The biggest U.S. oil port opened today after a two-day closure as Dennis's path turned east, crossing the Florida Panhandle.

``Clearly our worst fears were far from realized,'' said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at Fimat USA in New York. ``A lot of the damage premium will now exit the market.''

Crude oil for August delivery fell $1.13, or 1.9 percent, to $58.50 a barrel at 11:05 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $62.10 a barrel on July 7, the highest since trading began in 1983, on concern Dennis might disrupt production for an extended period. Oil is up 49 percent from a year ago.

In London, the August Brent crude-oil futures contract fell $1.28, or 2.2 percent, to $56.92 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange. Brent touched $60.70 a barrel on July 7, the highest since the contract was introduced in 1988.

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the biggest U.S. import terminal, began unloading cargoes from tankers today after a two- day closure, a port official said. The port, 20 miles off the Louisiana coast, handles about 1 million barrels of crude-oil imports a day.

`No Ivan'

``Hurricane Dennis appears to have been no Ivan,'' Kilduff said. ``Dennis wobbled sufficiently eastward to avoid production and refining assets.''

Last year New York oil prices jumped 22 percent in the month after Hurricane Ivan passed through the Gulf, pulling some offshore facilities from their moorings and damaging pipelines. The Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June through November.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps two out of every five barrels of oil worldwide, plans to raise production in the second half of this year to meet winter demand in the Northern Hemisphere, a spokesman for the group told the state-owned Kuwait News Agency today.

OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said he plans to resume consultations with other OPEC members on soaring oil prices and a possible increase in output, Agence France-Presse reported on Friday from Kuwait City.

Chinese Demand

China, the world's second-largest oil consumer after the U.S., reduced imports of petroleum products during the first half of the year. Chinese customs statistics showed that imports of oil products, including gasoline and diesel, in the January through June period fell 21 percent from a year earlier to 15.7 million metric tons.

China's imports of crude oil in the first half of the year rose by 3.9 percent to 63.4 million metric tons, the Beijing- based customs bureau said. In the same period last year crude-oil imports rose 39 percent.

``It was Chinese demand growth that got us above $50,'' Kilduff said. ``The Chinese news erodes the bullish argument.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 11, 2005 11:11 EDT