Crude prices up on Hurricane Rita approach

The progress of Hurricane Rita, upgraded twice during the day to a Category 4 and then a Category 5 storm, into the Gulf of Mexico and on toward an expected landfall on the Texas coast sent crude oil and oil product prices up again on Wednesday.

West Texas Intermediate crude November contracts gained 60 cents to $66.20 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while November contract Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange was up 53 cents to $64.78 per barrel late in the day in London. Brent prices are up around $3 per barrel on the week so far.

October Nymex unleaded gasoline was up as well, by 9.34 cents to $2.07 per gallon, while October Nymex heating oil rose 3.12 cents to $2.0425 per gallon.

Natural gas prizes also were up again, putting it at four times its recent average price in the US. Nymex henry hub natural gas futures were at a record $13.24 per million British thermal units.

The new price hikes came after the US released its weekly oil and oil product inventories data. Despite a rise in imports, crude oil stockpiles fell by 300,000 barrels during the week.

Gasoline inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels due to an increase in refinery output, while distillates inventories grew by 800,000 barrels.

Demand for gasoline, distillates, and jet fuel were down in the most recent four-week period compared with the same period last year, but analysts cannot agree on whether the decline is due to high prices or the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina.