LONDON, Sept 28: Oil prices rose on Wednesday on fears over hurricane-battered refineries in the United States, and amid data showing that crude stocks fell last week, while gasoline reserves unexpectedly climbed.

However, data from the US Department of Energy (DoE) did not fully reflect the impact of Hurricane Rita, which has further disrupted oil and gas output as well as refinery operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in Nov, surged $1.28 to $66.35 per barrel in early trading.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery climbed 97 cents to $63.94 per barrel.

Crude futures weakened earlier on Wednesday, but edged back above $65 per barrel ahead of the data, as traders reviewed the latest hurricane damage reports.

“The market is not reacting to them (the US stocks figures) very much because what we see in the numbers is very old news,” said Societe Generale analyst Deborah White said.

The DoE reported a drop in crude oil inventories of 2.4 million barrels, a sharper decline than the 1.5-million-barrel drawdown expected by financial markets.

But gasoline (petrol) reserves increased 4.4 million barrels, against market expectations of a drop of two million barrels.

Distillates, used for heating and diesel fuel, fell 500,000 barrels, not as bad as expectations of a decrease of two million barrels.

US refineries operated at 86.7 per cent of capacity in the week to September 23, down from 90.8 per cent the prior week, the DoE added.—AFP