September 15th 2008, Stocks Crash

Crude futures fell hard Monday, along with the sensational drop in the U.S. equities market.

October West Texas crude lost $5.47 to $95.71 a barrel, and Brent crude slid $3.39 to $92.60 a barrel.

Reformulated gasoline dropped 15 cents to $2.54 a gallon, heating oil lost 26 cents to $2.54 a gallon, and near-month natural gas fell a penny to close at $7.36 per million British thermal units.

The decline in energy prices came as destruction assessment of oil rigs off the Gulf of Mexico is under way after Hurricane Ike slammed into Texas on Saturday. The storm hit the Texas coastline, causing infrastructure damage that's likely to disrupt oil supply to some extent.

Elsewhere, energy stocks suffered a severe beating Monday. BP (BP Quote - Cramer on BP - Stock Picks) fell 5.2% to $51.93, ConocoPhillips (COP Quote - Cramer on COP - Stock Picks) lost 6.4% to $68.72, Chevron (CVX Quote - Cramer on CVX - Stock Picks) sank 4.9% to $80.09, and Exxon Mobil (XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks) slid 5.5% to $73.25.

The U.S. Oil Fund (USO Quote - Cramer on USO - Stock Picks), an exchange-traded fund that closely tracks the value of WTI futures contracts on the Nymex, dropped 6.4% to $76.30.