Oil prices rise on stormy forecast for Gulf
But the toll at the gas pump is unchanged at a national average of $2.72 per gallon
Topics: Gulf Oil Spill, News
Oil prices advanced Thursday as energy producers kept an eye on a developing tropical storm that could move into the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend.
At the gas pump, prices were unchanged at a national average of $2.718 for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. The price is nearly 2 cents less than it was a month ago and about 25 cents higher than a year ago.
Benchmark crude rose $2.07 to $78.63 a gallon in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil and other energy contracts also benefited as stock prices rose on stronger earnings from companies such as Caterpillar Inc., 3M Co., UPS Inc. and AT&T Inc.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said a cluster of thunderstorms in the Bahamas formed into a tropical depression that’s expected to strengthen into a tropical storm and move into the eastern and central Gulf in the next few days.
BP PLC and other energy companies in the Gulf are considering evacuations of crews and rigs, including ships at the site of the British oil giant’s damaged oil well. Shell Oil has begun evacuating nonessential employees in the Gulf.
In other Nymex trading, natural gas prices rose after the government said reserves increased last week but remained below year-ago levels.
Still the supply was 9.9 percent above the five-year average as overall demand remains weak.
More Related Stories
-
Developers evict historic women's shelter to build luxury hotel
-
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship
-
DHS admits "impossible" to control 3D-printed guns
-
Journalists file suit against Manning trial secrecy
-
Russia: Syrian regime ready to talk peace
-
Report: Nearly a quarter of all Americans struggle to afford food
-
Ted Cruz against the world
-
Louie Gohmert: Women should be forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term
-
2 men arrested for endangering commercial aircraft
-
Oversized load blamed for bridge collapse
-
This is what Guy Fieri looks like as a balloon
-
Iran hackers aiming at U.S. energy firms
-
Lawyers release data in attempt to discredit Trayvon Martin
-
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
-
Bridge collapse: Part of "aging infrastructure"
-
Mistrial in penalty phase of Arias case
-
Amanda Bynes arrested after hurling bong from window
-
Interstate 5 bridge collapses north of Seattle
-
Mississippi could begin prosecuting women for miscarriages
-
Teenage girl claims she was beaten up for looking like Taylor Swift
-
UK Military: London attack victim was a "model soldier"
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
Rescue time, May 20, 2010
Fire and oil in the Gulf of Mexico, April 29, 2010
Most Read
-
Judge tells lesbian couple to separate -- or lose kids
-
9-year-old slams Rahm over Chicago schools
-
Greek yogurt, toxic waste hazard?
-
Tornado survivor to Wolf Blitzer: Sorry, I'm an atheist. I don't have to thank the Lord
-
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer
-
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship
-
Glenn Beck: CNN interview with atheist tornado survivor was a setup!
-
Graphic video reportedly shows possible London machete attack suspect
-
Joe Francis apologizes for calling jury "retarded"
-
Couple files groundbreaking lawsuit over child's sexual-reassignment surgery
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com
126 points127 points128 points | 12 comments
74 points75 points76 points | 19 comments
Comments
0 Comments