U.S. refinery outages and forecasts of a higher number of storms in the Gulf of Mexico boosted oil prices Wednesday, with crude futures surpassing the previous intraday high above $62 a barrel.
Light sweet crude for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange gained 55 cents to $62.44 a barrel in electronic trading by midday in Europe, 3 cents off its high for the session and above the previous intraday high of $62.30.