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rude oil prices rose in intraday trading Tuesday as fallout from the recent hurricanes turned refinery output toward gasoline production and away from distillate and diesel, Bloomberg reported.
The refinery squeeze sent the national average for diesel to a new high of $3.209 a gallon, up from the previous record of $3.197 on Friday, according to AAA, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Energy Department's weekly survey of diesel prices is due out Tuesday afternoon Eastern time.
Crude oil futures rose $1.30 to $63.10 a barrel in midday New York Mercantile Exchange trading, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures set a record $70.85 on Aug. 30, following Hurricane Katrina’s landfall a day earlier. They had fallen to $60.35 a barrel on Monday, the lowest since July 29, before rebounding, Bloomberg reported.
Heating-oil futures — sometimes a surrogate for diesel, as both are distillate fuels — also climbed on the Nymex, a third straight gain, Bloomberg said.
The International Energy Agency, meanwhile, cut its fourth-quarter production estimate for non-OPEC oil producers by 900,000 barrels a day and said that refineries must operate at peak capacity to keep up with year-end demand, Bloomberg reported.
Global oil consumption will average 83.4 million barrels a day, 100,000 barrels a day less than forecast a month ago, IEA said.
