August 30th, 2011

Crude oil futures rose to the highest level in almost four weeks in New York, advancing with gasoline and heating oil as East Coast refineries worked to restart after Hurricane Irene and on signs the housing market is stabilizing.

Crude oil futures increased as much as 2.2 percent as gasoline jumped after Sunoco Inc. shut a fuel-making unit at its Philadelphia refinery and other terminals operated at reduced rates. ConocoPhillips’s 238,000 barrels a day Linden, New Jersey, plant remains shut after Irene, according to an Energy Department report.

“We’re probably seeing the residual impact of Irene,” said Stephen Schork, president of the Schork Group Inc., an energy advisory company in Villanova, Pennsylvania. “The product markets are leading us higher. It’s the penultimate day for trading the September gasoline contract, which you can deliver summer-grade gasoline against.”

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