Oil prices close at $100 on concerns over refinery blast, supply

Buyers continue to express concerns about energy costs.

By Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 2/20/2008 9:44:00 AM

Oil futures prices closed at $100.01 per barrell on Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as concerns about a closed refinery in Texas and other possible global supply disruptions pushed prices up.

It was the first time oil futures closed above the $100 mark on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Year-to-date crude oil futures are up 4.2%. Buyers in Purchasingdata.com’s monthly survey expect energy prices to rise.

This is just the latest upward jolt in a domestic energy market that continues to fear inflation soon will smother an already troubled economy. This week, the traders bid up refined fuels following Monday's explosion at an Alon USA refinery in Big Spring, Texas.

Comments by Iran's oil minister spurred worries that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may cut production at its March 5 meeting.

“I think there are still a lot of worries that we have this stagnant growth in the economy and higher prices” analyst Richard Sparks at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati tells the Thomson News Service.