Oil futures were higher, but off Monday's record 70.80 usd a barrel, as dealers waited for damage reports following hurricane Katrina's devastating journey through the US oil producing area. At 10.40 am, October-dated Brent futures contracts were up 1.50 usd at 66.37 usd, after yesterday's public holiday. Meanwhile, US benchmark October-dated contracts were up 70 cents at 67.92 usd, in pre-market deals and off yesterday's record 70.80 usd. "Oil prices are higher today on worries over the damage caused by Katrina, and prices will remain supported while the in-dept assessments are being carried out," said Informa Global Markets analyst Peter Luxton. Participants can remember all to well that it took several months for US production to get back to pre-hurricane Ivan levels last year, he said. Hurricane Katrina has significantly reduced in strength from a category 5 hurricane, the strongest possible grading, to tropical storm status, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane centre Approximately 1.5 mln barrels of oil production has been lost due to the storm, as has 10 bln cubic feet of natural gas production, not to mention the loss in US refinery production, Luxton said. A pledge by key OPEC producer Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Nuaimi to raise its production to 11 mln barrels per day, to make up for supply losses caused by Katrina, failed to dampen sentiment. In addition, the OPEC president Sheikh Ahmed Fahd al-Sabah, who is also the Kuwaiti energy minister, yesterday said OPEC would consider options to calm soaring world prices and that he still regards current record highs as unjustified A source close to OPEC said raising production quotas is "one of the options" that OPEC will consider at its summit in Vienna on Sept 19. The source noted that OPEC still has an additional 2 mln bpd of spare production capacity In the US calls for a oil stocks being released from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve which is now at its 700 mln barrel capacity. The US Department of Energy said it stood ready to act if requested by refining companies to tackle shortages caused by Katrina's impact on Gulf of Mexico rigs and Louisiana refineries Informa's Luxton said oil prices look to remain below yesterday's record, but there is a risk that oil prices surge beyond yesterday's 70.80 usd a barrel following the release of Wednesday's US inventory data He noted the majority of the production loss caused by Katrina will not be reflected in tomorrow's data. Luxton also noted that speculative interest in the oil market which had reduced last week, but heavyweight investors could pile back in the market if they see oil prices remaining supported by ongoing production problems for the coming weeks. Separately, dealers said oil prices will also remain supported as US dealers prepare ahead of next Monday's Labor Day bank holiday