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SINGAPORE, Mar 28 (Reuters): Oil prices eased further from $55 a barrel today as fresh gains in the dollar prompted speculative funds to take more profits and as concerns over gasoline supply triggered by a Texas refinery blast faded.
US light crude fell 41 cents to $54.43 a barrel, losing part of last Thursday's $1.03 gain. Prices are still about $3 below the all-time peak of $57.60 on March 17.
Speculative funds raised their net length in the US crude oil market slightly last week, still shy of the eight-week high from two weeks ago, but boosted their holdings in gasoline to the highest level in just over a year, US regulatory data showed.
The dollar hit a six-week high against the yen and the euro Monday on expectations that US interest rates would rise at a faster pace. It was the dollar's eighth-straight day of gains versus the yen.
US gasoline shed 1.57 cents to $1.5835 a gallon, more than 2 cents below last week's record high after the blast at BP's Texas refinery Wednesday spurred fears of a gasoline supply crunch when Americans take to the roads this summer.
The explosion, which killed 15 people, damaged an isomerisation unit that upgrades the quality of gasoline but left most of the plant's operations unaffected.
BP Chief Executive John Browne said the incident cut no more than 5 per cent of gasoline production at the plant, the third- largest in the United States.
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