Leading to some extra buying late in the day, a report circulated that Chevron Corp.'s Pascagoula, Miss. refinery was canceling crude purchases. The refinery, Chevron's largest in the United States, has been operating at half-capacity after being damaged by a fire last week.
Energy News Today, a trade publication, reported that Chevron canceled a 550,000-barrel Venezuelan crude shipment. Chevron would not confirm that specifically, but stated the company's refinery is running less crude and that "we are working closely with our crude suppliers and expect some crude shipments may be cancelled or re-routed to other refineries in our global network."
After last week's large decline in U.S. gasoline inventories amid record demand, the gasoline market is "going to remain highly sensitive to any refinery problems," said Linda Rafield, senior oil analyst at energy information provider Platts.
Earlier this week, crude oil and gasoline made steep declines as Hurricane Dean missed key oil facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and uncertainty persisted in the credit markets. Many investors worry that a severe credit tightening could crimp growth and, in turn, dampen energy demand.
Those jitters lightened a bit after the Commerce Department said durable goods orders surged 5.9 percent in July and new home sales rose 2.8 percent that month.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose $1.26 to settle at $71.09 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but still finished slightly lower for the week. In London, October Brent crude gained 76 cents to settle at $70.62 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
September gasoline futures rose 5.82 cents to settle at $1.9814 a gallon, and September heating oil futures rose 3.62 cents to settle at $1.9972 a gallon. Gasoline is down 2.9 percent since last Friday, and heating oil is down 1 percent.
The average U.S. retail price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.768, little changed from last week, but down from $2.945 a month ago, according to AAA.
If more refineries report problems, or if another Atlantic hurricane approaches the Gulf Coast, pump prices could spike.
But natural gas prices, which have plunged 21 percent this week, continued to decline Friday. Supplies are well above normal and demand forecasts for the fuel, used to heat homes and power utilities, are tepid.
