LONDON (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell on speculation U.S. supplies will be adequate after the government offered to make up for shortfalls caused by the shutdown of Prudhoe Bay, the largest oil field in the country.

U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman offered to release oil from the emergency stockpile after BP Plc closed the Alaska field yesterday to fix pipelines. The nation holds 688 million barrels of oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve along the Gulf Coast. Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., the largest refiners in the U.S., said they can meet near-term needs.

``It appears that for the next month or so,'' refineries on the U.S. West Coast will be fine, and they have enough crude oil,'' said Eoin O'Callaghan, an analyst with BNP Paribas SA in London.

Crude oil for September delivery fell as much as 36 cents to $76.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract was at $76.84 at 11:49 a.m. in London. Brent crude oil for September settlement was down 24 cents at $78.06 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.

Crude oil rose earlier after BP said yesterday it will halt 400,000 barrels a day, or about 8 percent of U.S. production, to repair corroded pipelines at Prudhoe Bay. Repairs may take ``weeks or months,'' BP Alaska President Steve Marshall said yesterday.

Oil rose to $77.30 a barrel yesterday in New York, the highest intraday price since July 17. It closed at $76.98, the second-highest since trading began in 1984. Brent oil futures touched $78.64 a barrel, the highest intraday price since the contract started trading in 1988. Pipe Replacement

BP, the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company by production, will replace nearly three-quarters of its 22 miles (35 kilometers) of pipes at Prudhoe Bay.

``We're trying to get that pipe ordered and delivered,'' Toby Odone, a London-based BP spokesman, said today.

Refineries along the West Coast, particularly those in California and the Pacific Northwest, depend on Prudhoe Bay for crude supplies. There is no pipeline network linking reserves on the Gulf Coast to those refineries.

Tesoro has enough crude oil for the next 30 to 45 days, for the Golden Eagle refinery in Martinez, California, and its Anacortes refinery in Anacortes, Washington, both of which use crude from Prudhoe Bay, the company said in a statement yesterday. Valero Energy said its West Coast refineries can meet near-term needs. The longer-term effects are unknown.

Shipping oil to West Coast refineries would take ``10 days to two weeks, I would guess,'' Bodman said yesterday. Refinery Supply ``Oil is a very global market,'' BNP Paribas's O'Callaghan said.

``And the market should work to get the oil to the refineries that need it.''

Exxon Mobil Corp. does not expect the shutdown to affect crude supply to its Torrance, California, refinery, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The refinery, which can process about 155,000 barrels a day, relies primarily on California crude oil, Exxon said.

U.S. commercial oil inventories held 333.7 million barrels on July 28, almost 10 percent higher than the five-year average for the period. An Energy Department report tomorrow will probably show inventories fell by 1 million barrels last week, based on the median forecast from a Bloomberg News survey of 11 analysts.

Gasoline for September delivery was down 1.41 cents at $2.2375 a gallon in after-hours trading in New York.

Stockpiles of the motor fuel probably fell 1 million barrels last week, the third consecutive decline, according to the analyst survey. Inventories held 210.9 million barrels on July 28, 0.8 percent higher than the five-year average. High Demand, Prices

Gasoline demand the past four weeks averaged 9.6 million barrels a day, 1.6 percent higher than a year ago, the Energy Department said Aug. 2.

Oil reached a record $78.40 a barrel in New York on July 14 on concern that fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah might spread in the Middle East, source of almost a third of world supply. Prices rose above $75 last week on fear that a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico might become a hurricane and threaten oil and gas facilities.

Lebanon's government, which includes Hezbollah Cabinet ministers, yesterday approved deploying 15,000 of its troops to southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws, as the United Nations debates a cease-fire resolution.

Israel today imposed travel restrictions on residents in part of southern Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the cabinet may allow the army to extend operations into the area.