Tropical Storm Shakes Oil Markets
Crude oil prices rose Tuesday to $131.44 a barrel in New York even though Tropical Storm Dolly appeared likely to miss major oil producing regions.
The storm, possibly building to hurricane strength as it aimed for the Gulf Coast of Texas, gave rise to supply concerns, given the Gulf of Mexico’s importance to U.S. oil supplies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil prices rose Tuesday morning, up 40 cents to $131.44 per barrel. The price of heating oil rose 0.025 cents to $3.7729 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices rose 0.0129 cents to $3.23 per gallon. Natural gas prices fell 0.145 cents to $10.365 per million British thermal units.
At the pump, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline declined 0.014 cents to $4.055 per gallon, AAA said.