Oil rose by more than a dollar today as a number of US refineries remained shut because of hurricane disruption and ahead of US government data excepted to show falls in petroleum stocks.
US crude rose $1.10 to 110.45 a barrel earlier. London Brent crude jumped $1.05 to $109.11.
Hurricane Gustav did not cause much physical damage to oil facilities in the US Gulf region, the hub of the oil industry in the United States.
But 11 refineries in the US Gulf area, representing just over 11 per cent of the US fuel supply, remained shut as of Wednesday due to a lack of reliable electricty supplies in the wake of Gustav. More storms were seen under way.
"There are still concerns over supply issues. A lot of the Gulf of Mexico capacity was shut down and some refineries are still closed. We don't know how long they'll remain offline," said Gerard Rigby, an analyst at Fuel First Consulting in Sydney.
Entergy Corp, Louisiana's largest utility, said earlier this week that the worst damage was in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area, home to some of the biggest US plants, including Exxon Mobil's giant Baton Rouge facility.
Entergy said yesterday the full recovery of its power grid might be weeks away, while the company was restoring some power supply.
"Hurricane Ike strengthened into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane in the open Atlantic on Wednesday although it posed no immediate threat to land. Tropical Storm Hanna intensified to a lesser degree as it swirled over the Bahamas toward the southeast US Coast.
Oil traders were closely watching weekly US government oil data due out later on Thursday.
The data was expected to show a 1.4 million-barrel drawdown in petrol stocks and a 500,000-barrel increase in distillate fuels.