FUTURES Crude oil prices rise; Ivan's effects being assessed

Crews are returning to oil rigs that were evacuated as the hurricane approached.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Oil prices rose Thursday despite reports that refineries along the Gulf Coast, as well as production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, that had been shut down were slowly being restaffed, as Hurricane Ivan proved to be less disruptive than feared.
"We've really not heard of any refineries in that area reporting any problems," and several are already being restarted, said Tom Bentz, a trader at BNP Paribas Futures in New York.
More time was still needed to assess the impact on production platforms, and some refiners said logistical constraints had slowed their ability to restart operations.
A tropical storm, Jeanne, strengthened into a hurricane Thursday, striking the Dominican Republic, and that left Bentz and other traders with a tinge of cautiousness about the market's direction in the week ahead.
Light crude for October delivery rose 30 cents to $43.88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Crude futures started off lower when the day began, but traders who had expected them to fall even farther had to cover their bets at the end of the day, and that brought prices back up, Bentz said.
Other events that might have contributed to the rise in prices were a pipeline explosion in northern Iraq and an explosion on an oil tanker unloading in northeastern Siberia.
Anticipating Ivan
Earlier in the week, oil prices shot up in anticipation of Hurricane Ivan's arrival, with production platforms, rigs and refiners in and around the Gulf of Mexico shutting down their operations. Oil markets were tense over the possibility that lasting damage to production platforms or refineries could disrupt the nation's energy-supply chain, sending fuel prices even higher.
As of Thursday, more than two-thirds of the manned platforms and more than half of the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had been evacuated, according to the federal Minerals Management service, shutting in 1.4 million barrels per day of oil production and 6.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
That is about 82 percent of total daily oil production and 53 percent of total daily natural gas production in the Gulf, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the oil and natural gas used in the United States.
But by Thursday afternoon ChevronTexaco Corp., Motiva Enterprises, Marathon Ashland Petroleum, Shell Oil Co. and others had begun restaffing some of their production and refining operations in and around the Gulf.
Tom Kloza, director of Oil Price Information Service in Lakewood, N.J., said he expected the hurricane-related refinery shutdowns to cause U.S. gasoline supplies to contract in the short term. But fortunately for U.S. motorists, it comes at a time when demand is naturally tapering off after the busy summer driving season.