SINGAPORE?Oil fell in Asian trade Tuesday as investor worries over the potential threat posed by Hurricane Ida to petroleum installations in the Gulf of Mexico subsided, analysts said.

A firmer US currency, which makes dollar-priced crude more expensive for holders of foreign units, was also a factor in pushing oil futures lower, they said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery fell 40 cents to $79.03 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for December delivery was off 37 cents to $77.40 a barrel.

"I don't think that (Hurricane) Ida is seen as anything other than a short-term disruption," said David Moore, a Sydney-based commodities strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

"It's been a very quiet hurricane season," he added, with only two other hurricanes in the June 1 to November 30 Atlantic season.

Ida, which on Sunday was a category two hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, weakened to a tropical storm on Monday, officials at the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

The dollar's slight recovery against the euro was the other factor driving crude lower, said Moore.

In Asian trade Tuesday, the euro slipped to $1.4977 compared with 1.4994 in late US trade Monday.

Meanwhile top oil-producing countries fear that the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen next month could levy new taxes on the oil and gas industries, Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Khelil told the Algerian APS news agency that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), a 13-member cartel of oil-rich nations, are worried any new taxes agreed in the Danish capital could have "a negative impact on their economies."

Khelil said Opec, of which Algeria is a member, would work together to strike a common position ahead of the December conference "in order to protect their interests."