LONDON, Oct 27: World oil prices rose on Thursday as the market began to focus on the upcoming northern hemisphere winter when demand for heating fuel was forecast to jump.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, climbed 44 cents to $61.10 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for December delivery gained 19 cents to $59.06 per barrel in electronic dealing.

New York’s main contract had closed nearly two dollars lower on Wednesday after a large rise in US stockpiles of crude.

The weekly report from the Department of Energy showed that US crude oil inventories rose by 4.4 million barrels in the week ending October 21 to total 316.4 million as stockpiling continued after recent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. The inventories were 12.3 per cent above year-earlier levels.

But the government report showed also that stockpiles of distillates, including diesel and heating fuel, fell by 1.6 million barrels to 121.1 million over the same week.

“The fall in stocks is a bit concerning when they should be building ahead of what potentially could be a very cold winter in the US and Europe,” Sucden analysts said in a research note.

Worries about cold weather hitting the US northeast saw New York’s main oil contract surge 2.12 dollars on Tuesday to close at $62.44.

However, that price remained 12 per cent below the record level of $70.85 reached on August 30 after Hurricane Katrina battered oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Phil Flynn, an energy analyst with Alaron Trading, said that traders’ focus “has shifted to distillates and that includes heating oil”.

He added: “Winter just seemed so far away last week but sometimes winter can sneak up on you and with frost and snow on the Halloween pumpkin, traders will worry that we will face a long, hard, cold winter.

“And if that is indeed the case we will worry about our supposedly adequate supplies of natural gas and heating oil.”—AFP