Gasoline, Oil Futures Surge As Refineries Might Stay Offline; Sept. Gas Up 20% To $2.47; Oil jumps 4% to $69.81 as damage looks bleak; get ready for $3 at pump.(A)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

Byline: MIKE ANGELL

Energy prices soared as Hurricane Katrina shut down a significant amount of the U.S. oil and gas sector. Whether prices stay high remains unclear until actual damage to rigs, refineries and pipelines can be seen.

On the futures market, crude oil soared $2.61 to $69.81 a barrel, hitting a record $70.90 intraday. Natural gas jumped 55.6 cents to $11.695 per million British thermal units.

But the real story was gasoline futures, which shot up 41.39 cents, or 20.1%, to $2.4745 a gallon. Nymex had to halt trading for five minutes in the morning before letting traders bid prices higher.

With Gulf refineries down and likely to stay that way for quite...

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