Black Gold Rises on Refinery Openings in the North East

“BANGKOK (AP) — The restart of refineries in the storm-hit northeastern United States helped lift oil prices on Thursday.

Benchmark oil for December delivery rose 7 cents at late afternoon Bangkok time to $86.31 inelectronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 56 cents to finish at $86.24 per barrel in New York.

Nine oil refineries that make up 8 percent of U.S. refining capacity sit in the region hit by superstorm Sandy. Nearly all were affected by the storm, and two still were not operating late Wednesday.

Crude prices were up “following reports that a number of key Northeastern refineries were back in operation after Hurricane Sandy, which was seen bolstering near term demand for crude oil,” CME Group said in an energy market report.”

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