Crude Oil Price Rebounds Following Post-Rita Declines

rude oil futures prices rose from two-week lows they had reached in overnight trading Monday, following reports that refiners on the Gulf Coast had sustained some damage from Hurricane Rita.

Benchmark crude oil prices rose $1.63 to close at $65.82 a barrel in New York Mercantile Exchange trading, Bloomberg reported. That was about $5 below the $70.85 record set on Aug. 30 following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall near New Orleans.

ExxonMobil said damage to its Gulf refinery facilities was not as severe as projected because the storm weakened before making landfall early Saturday, and that it was already restarting some of the plants it had shut down in anticipation of more severe damage, Bloomberg reported.