LONDON - WORLD oil prices rose on Thurs on concerns about Tropical Storm Gustav in the Gulf of Mexico, where key US energy facilities are based, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, gained 56 US cents (S$0.79) to US$118.71 per barrel in electronic deals.
London's Brent North Sea crude for October won 50 US cents to S$116.72.
'Oil markets are waiting for Gustav,' said PetroMatrix analyst Olivier Jakob.
'It is still potentially going towards the oil assets of the US Gulf but current forecasts are not showing it to be the mother of all hurricanes.'
Tropical Storm Gustav rumbled on Thursday toward Jamaica and Cuba and threatened to take hurricane force winds to Louisiana after leaving 22 people dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The eye of the storm was expected to pass 'very close' to Jamaica later on Thurs, the US National Hurricane Center said, while 50,000 people were evacuated from zones at risk in eastern Cuba.
Gustav, which struck Haiti as a Category One hurricane on Tuesday, could regain hurricane strength by Friday, the center warned. -- AFP
