Oil was slightly higher Thursday, as traders waited to learn more about the possible impact of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, the wrangling over the debt ceiling in Washington and the debt crisis in Europe, AP reported. Tropical storm Don formed in the Gulf near Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on Wednesday and is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, on Friday night or Saturday morning. Its path is south of the main oil and gas producing regions in the Gulf, but about 500 operating oil and gas rigs are in the storm's path, according to Rich Ilczyszyn, senior market strategist at brokerage service Lind-Waldcock. Oil companies with offshore platforms in the region - including ExxonMobil, BP and Anadarko Petroleum - have begun to shut some oil and gas production and evacuate workers. A sustained drop in production could bring higher oil prices. In morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose 18 cents to $97.58 per barrel. In London, Brent crude added 82 cents at $118.25 per barrel. Oil has ranged between about $95 and $100 a barrel since the beginning of July. Natural gas prices dropped after the Energy Information Administration reported that the U.S.'s natural gas supplies grew by 43 billion cubic feet in the past week. Analysts expected a smaller increase because the intense heat wave that blanketed the eastern half of the country last week led to high electricity demand. About 20 percent of the nation's electricity is generated with natural gas. During spikes in electricity demand, like last week, utilities rely on natural gas more heavily. Natural gas prices fell 7 cents to $4.248 per 1,000 cubic feet. In other Nymex contracts for August, heating oil rose 3 cents to $3.1233 a gallon and gasoline was virtually unchanged at $3.0863 a gallon. -- SPA
