CHICAGO, Aug 16: Gasoline soared on Friday to a five-month high after the largest power failure in North American history forced shutdowns of nearly 700,000 barrels a day of oil-refining capacity at US and Canada refineries.

The massive blackout that knocked out power through much of the northeastern United States and Ontario delayed trading at some financial markets on Friday, including gold and oil trading in New York. But emergency plans drawn up after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States generally kept markets operating.

Gold closed lower, with that barometer of investor sentiment showing no panic at the blackout or initial fears that the outages might have been caused by new terror attacks.

Metals like copper also showed little reaction to news that big miners like Canada’s Noranda and Falconbridge had operations affected by the outage. In other markets, wheat prices continued to soar on worries about tight world supply.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, gasoline for September delivery closed 2.31 cents higher at 99.94 cents a gallon, after soaring to $1.025 in NYMEX overnight screen trading.

Shutdowns of three US refineries and four in Canada added to existing concerns about shrinking fuel inventories in the United States, the world’s largest energy consumer.

“In the past, sudden power failures have caused problems for refineries coming back,” said Aaron Brady, a petroleum analyst at Energy Security Analysis in Boston. “On top of that, there were already refinery snags going on around the country.”

US government reports earlier this week showed commercial stocks of gasoline at the lowest level in eight months due to slow imports during the summer, the peak US driving season.

Crude oil and heating oil prices, meanwhile, closed lower on the blackout. Airlines cancelled nearly 400 flights destined for stricken US and Canadian airports and many factories closed their doors on Friday, lowering demand for oil.

NYMEX September crude fell 4 cents to $31.05 a barrel. In London, October Brent crude fell 4 cents at $28.83. NYMEX September heating oil closed 0.38 cent lower at 81.00 cents a gallon.

At the COMEX in New York, metals trade opened 1-1/2 hours late at 1400 GMT for an abbreviated two-hour session. Trading ranks were thinned by commuting problems and many traders were in ragged shape after being stranded in the city on Thursday night by the massive outage.

“If they are here they’ll want to get out of here, because if they are here they probably spent the night here,” said one metals dealer at a commercial bank in midtown Manhattan.

COMEX December gold closed at noon down $2.80 at $364.70 an ounce. Spot gold bullion was last quoted at $363.20/3.90, down from the $365.50/6.20 close. London’s last fix was $364.50.

Traders said that gold had been due for a correction before the weekend after futures surged to a 17-day high at $368.80 on Thursday, threatening its July high near $370.

September silver fell 10.8 cents to $4.927 an ounce.—Reuters