Oil Trades Near $60 on Alaska Pipeline Disruption, Stockpiles

Crude oil traded near $60 a barrel in New York after jumping yesterday on concern output disruptions may limit supplies as peak American winter heating demand nears.

Oil rose the most in almost a month yesterday after shipments from the Trans-Alaska pipeline were disrupted by high winds at the port of Valdez. Mild temperatures in the U.S. Northeast were probably not enough to prevent distillate supplies, including heating oil and diesel, being drawn down for a seventh time last week, according to a survey of analysts.

Crude oil for January delivery was at $60.15 a barrel, down 2 cents, in afterhours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 10:20 a.m. in Sydney.

The contract rose $1.37, or 2.3%, to $60.17 yesterday, the biggest one-day gain since October 25 and the highest close for a contract next to expiration since November 9.

America is the world's biggest oil consumer. Alaska accounted for about 12% of the nation's oil production in August, the latest data on the Energy Department's Web site.

The 800-mile Trans-Alaska pipeline delivers oil from Prudhoe Bay south to Valdez at an average rate of about 800,000 barrels a day. Deliveries have been cut by 65% because of high seas and winds at the port, the pipeline spokesman, Mike Heatwole, said yesterday.

Floor trading on the New York exchange will be shut on November 23 and 24 because of the Thanksgiving holiday in America.

Oil has plunged 23% from the record of $78.40 a barrel reached on July 14. America oil stockpiles, already 12% above the five-year average at 336 million barrels, probably gained another 700,000 barrels last week, based on the median estimate from a Bloomberg News survey of 15 analysts.