Crude Oil Prices Rise Slightly; May Fall This Week

Click here to write a Letter to the Editor.

rude oil prices rose slightly Friday on concerns Hurricane Emily could head toward oil-producing Venezuela, but analysts said oil prices could drop this week on rising fuel supply.

Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures rose 29 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange to close at $58.09 a barrel, Bloomberg reported. That followed a drop of more than $2 a barrel on Thursday.

Bloomberg said Friday that 21 of 59 analysts it surveyed predicted oil prices would fall this week, compared with 18 who said they would rise.

Refiners will have enough fuel to meet peak winter demand unless a large hurricane hits the Gulf of Mexico and directly hampers U.S. extraction and refining capability, Bloomberg reported.

Diesel fuel prices hit record prices in the past three weekly surveys by the Department of Energy, topping out last week at $2.408 a gallon, and gasoline also hit a record this past Monday, at $2.328.

DOE’s next survey will be released later on Monday.