Oil fell in Asia Tuesday as crude demand suffered from refinery shutdowns on the U.S. Gulf coast due to the onset of Tropical Storm Isaac while talk of a release of oil reserves surfaced, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October was down one cent to $95.46 a barrel in volatile trade, and Brent North Sea crude for October delivery shed three cents to $112.23 in the afternoon.

Philippine Airlines announced Tuesday it had ordered 54 Airbus aircraft with a list price of $7 billion, and planned to buy dozens more planes in a spectacular move to rejuvenate Asia's oldest carrier.

"The orders we are placing with Airbus will play a key role in revitalizing PAL and growing trade and tourism in this country," PAL chairman Lucio Tan said in a statement.

U.S. justice officials are checking whether a German unit of the Italian banking group UniCredit did deals with Iran that would have violated U.S. sanctions, Italian press reports said on Monday.

"UniCredit is included on a list of international banks under investigation for having avoided sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran," the daily Corriere della Sera said.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Monday it has restored its main internal network after a cyber-attack nearly two weeks ago which failed to impact its oil production.

The company "restored all its main internal network services that were impacted on August 15, 2012, by a malicious virus that originated from external sources," said a statement on its website.

Nile cruises from Egypt's capital Cairo to Luxor resumed over the weekend after being halted 18 years ago because of security concerns.

A ceremony marking the resumption of cruises from the capital was held in Luxor, the mecca of Egyptian tourism, after the arrival of a vessel from Cairo.

Crude prices surged in Asia Monday as supply of oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico was curtailed after Tropical Storm Isaac forced the closure of production facilities in the region, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery soared $1.03 to $97.18 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October gained $1.25 to $114.84.

Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service Monday upgraded South Korea's sovereign credit rating, citing strong fiscal fundamentals and resilience to external economic shocks.

Moody's lifted South Korea's government bond rating by one notch to Aa3 from A1, saying their balance sheet has been relatively unscathed by the global slowdown and the Eurozone financial crisis.

French President Francois Hollande said Saturday after talks with the Greek prime minister that crisis-wracked Greece must stay in the Eurozone but first needed to prove it is determined to slash its budget deficit.

"Greece is in the Eurozone and Greece must stay in the Eurozone," Hollande said at a joint press conference with Antonis Samaras at the Elysee palace.

Spain's government denied Friday that it had entered negotiations for a sovereign rescue, which would make it the largest victim so far of the Eurozone crisis.

Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria repeated to journalists a denial issued earlier in the day in Brussels by a spokesman for European Commissioner for the euro Olli Rehn.

International agency Standard & Poor's on Friday affirmed the Czech Republic's foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings and said the export-reliant country's economic outlook was stable.

S&P said it was sticking to its long-term foreign currency rating of "AA-," while the local currency rating would stay at "AA."