Oil prices slipped from record levels Friday as Hurricane Katrina failed to disrupt oil and gas activities in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Light sweet crude for delivery in October, New York's main contract, fell 1.36 dollars to close at 66.13 dollars per barrel, after briefly trading as high as 67.95 dollars. The slip in prices came as Hurricane Katrina, despite making landfall in Florida, has not affected US Gulf oil production as much as had been feared.

Oil hit a record closing price on Thursday of 67.49 dollars, and briefly touched a record of 68 dollars late Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange -- the highest point since it was first traded in 1983, amid concerns that Hurricane Katrina could damage or close US refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shell and BP both said Thursday they would evacuate some non-essential personnel from their eastern Gulf of Mexico operations over the next two days ahead of the possible arrival of Katrina, but output has so far remained unaffected.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggested Friday he is not particularly worried by the rise of crude-oil prices so far.

"The flexibility of our market-driven economy has allowed us, thus far, to weather reasonably well the steep rise in spot and futures prices for crude oil and natural gas that we have experienced over the past two years," Greenspan stressed.