NEW YORK, Sept 9 (AFP) - Crude oil prices shot higher on global markets Thursday with traders fretting over Hurricane Ivan's potential impact on oil operations and disappointing US inventory data.
New York's reference contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, jumped 1.84 dollars to 44.61 dollars per barrel in closing deals.
The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in October advanced 1.83 dollars per barrel to 42.22 dollars in closing trade in London.
Hurricane Ivan, a powerful storm tearing through the Caribbean, appeared likely to move into the Gulf of Mexico, which has considerable oil production. That along with weak inventory reports for the United States ahead of the winter heating season pushed prices higher.
"The hurricane is about to hit the US Gulf coast," said Yasser Elguindi, analyst at Medley Global Advisors.
"It's not sure how much, and if it's going to affect production, but it's a risk."
The US Energy Department said distillate inventories, which include heating oils, were up 200,000 barrels at 126.6 million in the week to September 3.
Analysts had forecast a rise of 1.25 million barrels.
According to a separate survey by the private American Petroleum Institute, distillate reserves rose 1.62 million barrels to 126.25 million.
The government and industry surveys also showed a mixed picture of US inventories of crude oil, but both reports showed a sharp drop in gasoline supplies.
The Energy Department said US crude oil inventories fell 1.4 million barrels to 285.7 million barrels for the week ended September 3. But according to the American Petroleum Institute, crude oil stocks were up a modest 620,000 barrels over the past week to 281.98 million barrels.
"The inventory figures were quite disappointing," said Fimat USA analyst Steve Bellino.
"The drought in crude and gasoline was bigger than expected and got investors caught off guard."
"The market is concerned that distillate stocks barely climbed (in the week ending September 3) during a time when US refineries are working flat-out," Societe Generale analyst Frederic Lasserre said.
Oil prices had dipped earlier in the day on expectations of rising output from the OPEC producer group and as the International Energy Agency said markets were "well-supplied with crude."
The Paris-based IEA said: "What is clear for now is that supply is running ahead of demand and stocks are building."
World oil supply rose by 300,000 barrels per day in August to 83.6 million barrels per day, owing mainly to a rise of 410,000 barrels a day by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the IEA estimated.
The report was published shortly after OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro had said in Jakarta that world oil prices would soon fall because "oversupply will stand at 2.7 million barrels per day".