Outages at refineries send crude prices higher

Crude oil prices were mixed Thursday as prices rose in New York after refiners reported power outages at Texas refineries in the wake of Hurricane Humberto.

Port Arthur, Texas, refineries seemed to be the worst affected, with power outages halting production at three refineries with a total of 790,000 barrels of daily capacity, while an Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) refinery in Beaumont, Texas, said that it had suffered a minor outage but remained in production.

October contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were as high as a new record of $80.20 per barrel early and by mid-afternoon were trading 18 cents higher at $80.09 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude for October delivery was 32 cents lower to $77.36 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.

Nymex October gasoline was 3 cents higher to $2.05 per gallon, while October heating oil traded even at $2.22 per gallon.

October natural gas dropped 41 cents to $6.03 per million British thermal units in New York after the US Energy Information Administration reported that natural gas inventories added 64 billion cubic feet last week to 3.07 trillion cubic feet, well above the five-year average of 2.81 trillion cubic feet in storage.

Despite the gains in crude oil and gasoline futures, at-the-pump gasoline prices in the US were 0.7 cent lower overnight to an average of $2.808 per gallon nationally, and analysts said that because gasoline demand drops at this time of year and because cheaper winter blends go on sale beginning Saturday, pump prices are not likely to rise significantly.