Crude oil prices up on more bad news from Prudhoe Bay

Crude oil prices were higher on Thursday, but not enough to recover from significant declines on Wednesday.  Part of the price increases had to do with more bad news from BP, which said that output from its Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, oil field will drop further due to a problem with a natural gas compressor.  In other news, the US will hold a lease sale on 8 million acres of Alaska land on September 27.  Additionally, Libya said that it will double its crude oil production over the next few years.  The North African nation currently produces around 1.6 million barrels of crude oil per day.

Brent crude for October delivery was 54 cents higher to $72.55 per barrel.  October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up 33 cents to $72.10 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  Meanwhile, Nymex Henry Hub natural gas was up 11.5 cents to $6.9900 per million British thermal units as US inventories were up by 57 billion cubic feet, about what was expected.  With colder weather approaching, the September Nymax heating oil contract added just less than a cent to $2.0110 per gallon.  Nymex September unleaded gasoline prices gained 0.7 cents to $1.8680 per gallon.