Reply #3: Oil, gas futures rise on storm worries

[ozymandius]

NEW YORK - Oil and gas futures rose Tuesday on expectations the hurricane season will intensify and that OPEC won't boost production when it meets next week.

Hurricane Felix slammed into Central America near the Nicaragua-Honduras border as a Category 5 storm early Tuesday, then weakened. While Felix and an earlier hurricane, Dean, have largely spared oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico, a Colorado State University forecaster on Tuesday said six more hurricanes are likely this season. Three of those storms will be major, hurricane expert William Gray said.

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At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices fell 0.1 cent to $2.779 a gallon, reversing a trend that had seen prices rising in advance of Labor Day. Retail prices, which typically lag the futures market, peaked at $3.227 a gallon in late May.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 2.21 cents to settle at $2.0795 a gallon, and October natural gas rose 16.1 cents to settle at $5.629 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices