Oil Prices Rise but Finish Lower for the Week

By Bloomberg, AP and Staff Reports

Crude-oil futures rose Friday as traders kept a wary eye on the path of Hurricane Wilma heading into the weekend. But prices ended the week down 3 percent because forecasters expect it to miss oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and because there are signs that supplies are building.

Light sweet crude for December delivery rose 61 cents to settle at $60.63 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Last Friday, oil futures closed at $62.63 per barrel.

December Brent crude futures on London’s International Petroleum Exchange rose 57 cents to settle at $58.48 a barrel.

Heating oil fell by less than a penny to $1.8655 per gallon, while gasoline futures rose 2.68 cents to $1.6399 per gallon.

Natural gas futures were down 10.5 cents to $12.872 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Oil’s slide this week reflects diminishing concerns about supply shortages following earlier hurricane damage to oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, traders said.

The U.S. government’s latest petroleum inventories report showed domestic crude and gasoline stocks rose.

“The situation has completely changed since the beginning of October,” said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo.

Oil prices have declined 14 percent since reaching $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30, after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.