Oil prices surged to a record above $70 a barrel before paring gains on Monday as one of the biggest hurricanes in U.S. history disrupted oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, home to a quarter of total domestic oil and gas production.
Light, sweet crude for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped nearly $5 in electronic trade to touch a peak of $70.80 per barrel, the highest front-month price since the New York Mercantile Exchange began trading the contracts in 1983. Oil settled up only $1.07 at $67.20 a barrel, trimming the early gains after Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi, and dealers awaited news of damage to oil installations and refineries.
