Crude Oil Futures Rise Above 65 Dollars a Barrel

Crude oil futures rise above 65 dollars a barrel

NEW YORK, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Crude oil prices rose more than 2 dollars a barrel Friday as Middle East terror rekindled supply fears.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for September delivery rose 2.08 dollars to end at 65.35 dollars a barrel. Meanwhile, on London’s International Petroleum Exchange, the October Brent oil futures contract climbed 1.96 dollars a barrel to settle at 64.36 dollars a barrel.

The surge in oil prices was sparked by a missile attack on a US Navy ship off the coast of Jordan and the Ecuador production outage. Traders concerned these things might lead to a major supply disruption.

Analysts said that earlier this week, traders were worried about demand, but now they were worried about the supply side.

Meanwhile, September gasoline futures rose 4.10 cents to end at 1.9039 dollars a gallon, while heating oil futures for the same month added 3.23 cents to close at 1.8228 dollars a gallon.