Gasoline futures surged and crude prices rose Thursday, with U.S. plans to tap strategic reserves to counter Hurricane Katrina’s destruction doing little to ease concern about damage to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.
Analysts warned the damage to the region’s oil industry could take time to remedy.
Light sweet crude for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 21 cents to $69.15 a barrel by afternoon in Europe. Gasoline jumped nearly 13 cents to $2.3850 a gallon.
On London’s International Petroleum Exchange, October Brent futures rose 36 cents to $67.38 a barrel.