Commodity Online
NEW YORK : Oil prices advanced Monday following hurricane fears as Tropical Storm Gustav formed in the Caribbean Sea, raising concern oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico may be struck.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery settled 52 cents, or 0.5 per cent, higher at $115.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, now a unit of CME Group. Prices are up 62% from a year ago.
Gustav packed winds of about 96 kilometer per hour and was moving toward the Gulf, a National Hurricane Center advisory showed.
Gustav was located about 362 kilometers south- southeast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and was moving northwest at about 14 miles per hour, according to the Hurricane Center. Fields in the Gulf of Mexico account for about 20% of US oil output.
Prices also rose after Russian lawmakers voted to recognize the independence of two breakaway Georgian regions, increasing concern of new tensions in the area.
Brent crude oil for October settlement rose 11 cents to $114.03 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. Trading hours were not affected by today's UK bank holiday.
