Crude oil price retreated Monday after it touched a record of 70.80 dollars-- the highest point since it was first traded in 1983.

Light sweet crude for October delivery, New York's main contract, jumped as much as 4.67 dollars a barrel to hit a new high of 70.80 dollars a barrel in Asian electronic trading, but then closed up only 1.07 dollar at 67.20 dollars a barrel by the end of trade in New York, after the US government said it might release strategic crude reserves in response to Hurricane Katrina.

Unlike last year's Hurricane Ivan, which only hit the edge of the oil and natural-gas producing areas in the central Gulf of Mexico, Katrina is plowing right through the heart of that region.

The Gulf of Mexico normally produces 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a day, or 30 percent of the US domestic output, according to the US Mineral Management Service.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Energy Department was still assessing the situation before making a recommendation on the reserve. "Obviously, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is there for emergency situations, and that would include natural disasters," he said. "But it's just too early to know at this point."

Bush authorized loans about 5.4 million barrels of crude oil from the reserve to five companies to make up for missing supplies when Hurricane Ivan struck on September 2004. The government's supply of nearly 700 million barrels of oil is stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

Brent crude was not trading Monday, with London's International Petroleum Exchange closed for a bank holiday.

Source: Xinhua