Oil falls below $78 in Asia

SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell below $78 a barrel Tuesday in Asia on signs Tropical Storm Alex would likely miss most of the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving supplies undisrupted.

Benchmark crude for August delivery was down 53 cents to $77.72 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 61 cents to settle at $78.25 on Monday.

Alex gained strength and appeared on track to become a hurricane Tuesday before it makes landfall very near the Mexico-U.S. border sometime late Wednesday, said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida.

The tropical storm's center wasn't expected to approach BP's massive oil spill off Louisiana's coast or the other major crude installations in the area, the center said.

Crude prices jumped late last week on expectations Alex could disrupt Gulf oil supplies.

"On Friday, the storm was something of a blank canvas with nothing on it, and traders were quick to project their worst fears," Cameron Hanover said in a report. "But, by Monday, it was clear that this first storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season was not going to be a major threat to the oil industry."

Most Asian stock markets fell Tuesday, also undermining overall investor confidence.

Pakistan brings commendable economic reforms: IMF

WASHINGTON: The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday praised Pakistan's commitment to an 11.3 billion-dollar rescue package, despite a delay in setting up a nationwide tax.

IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that while Pakistan could not be considered a “normal country” in light of its wave of violence, the government has made a “good step forward” on economic reforms.

“There is a lot of concern but no real problem. I think they are going ahead rightly,” Strauss-Kahn said in a group interview. The Washington-based international lender approved the latest 1.13 billion dollars of the package in May and allowed two waivers on conditions, including giving the government the right to overrun the budget deficit.

As part of the IMF bailout, Pakistan agreed to impose a nationwide value-added tax to bolster government coffers and drum up badly needed funding to fight poverty.

But Pakistani leaders are squabbling over how to set up the tax. Some Pakistanis have voiced fear that the delay could lead to a cut-off in IMF support.

Strauss-Kahn acknowledged the IMF had “questions” about the tax and energy prices, but added: “I must say that a lot already has been delivered by the government.”

Another concern, Strauss-Kahn said, was to ensure that donor nations, informally grouped as the “Friends of Pakistan”, follow through with pledges.

“The question is... does the so-called Friend of Pakistan set of countries... really deliver and provide the resources, because all the resources needed are not supposed to come from the IMF,” he said.

Donors met in April 2009 in Tokyo and pledged 5.28 billion dollars to help stabilize Pakistan, which is the Islamic world's only declared nuclear weapons state and lies on the frontline of the US-led war on extremists in Afghanistan.

The US Congress last year approved a five-year, 7.5 billion-dollar plan to build roads, schools and democratic institutions in Pakistan.

US accepts Gulf oil spill aid from 12 countries

NEW ORLEANS: The United States will accept offers from 12 foreign countries to help clean up and contain the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said on Tuesday.

"The United States will accept 22 offers of assistance from 12 countries and international bodies, including two high speed skimmers and fire containment boom from Japan," a US State Department statement said.

"We are currently working out the particular modalities of delivering the offered assistance," it said, adding that details would be "forthcoming once these arrangements are complete."

Offers of boom to contain oil and collect it off the surface of the water have been accepted from Canada, Mexico, Norway and Japan, said a spokeswoman from the Unified Area Command, an entity headed by the US Coast Guard that is coordinating with BP on the oil spill response.

Skimmers have been accepted from Mexico, Norway, France and Japan and a sweeping arm system has been accepted from the Netherlands, spokeswoman Gina Ruoti told media.

Non-material offers of assistance are coming from the European Union and International Maritime Organization, she added, but was unable to say how much the assistance would be.

A total of 27 countries have offered assistance to the US government following the explosion in April of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which left 11 workers dead and sparked the most severe oil spill disaster in US history.

An estimated 1.6 million to 3.6 million barrels of oil -- or 67 million to 153 million gallons -- have already poured into the Gulf from the ruptured wellhead some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface.