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Oil prices gush upward
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August 9, 1999: 5:59 p.m. ET
Crude surges to near two-year high on expectation of tight supply
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Oil prices gushered to a near two-year high Monday as investors concluded that tight restrictions on imports from other countries will keep U.S. inventories low, even as demand rises.
Benchmark Brent crude for September delivery rose to $20.51 a barrel, up 45 cents for the day and at its highest level since Oct. 9, 1997. Nymex Light crude for September delivery, meanwhile, rose to $21.27 a barrel, up 39 cents on the day and at its highest since Oct. 22, 1997.
Fresh evidence that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will maintain its current output restraints through the remainder of the year along, with additional export curbs from Russia, sparked optimism among investors that the supply of oil is drying up. A decline in U.S. oil inventories also helped spur the rally, analysts said.
Evidence that the pool of refinable oil available to U.S. producers will remain stable or shrink tends to push up its price as traders anticipate refiners will pay a premium for the commodity.
Word of an explosion at Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s Corpus Christi, Texas, operations also drove oil prices higher, traders said. One worker was killed and another injured in the explosion, which occurred after a boiler exploded in the plant. No fire resulted from the explosion and officials said the plant's 165,000-a-day capacity was not affected.
Tulsa, Okla.-based Citgo is owned by PDV America Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of Venezuela. 
-- from staff and wires
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