Oil Surges to $100 a Barrel

Updated from 3:07 p.m. EST

Crude oil futures closed above $100 a barrel for the first time ever Tuesday, fueled by bullish momentum among traders and new problems in the U.S. refining space.

West Texas intermediate crude jumped $4.51, or nearly 5%, to settle at $100.01 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Reformulated gasoline was 11 cents higher at $2.60 a gallon, and heating oil was up 11 cents at $2.76 a gallon. Natural gas climbed 32 cents to $8.98 per million British thermal units.

Driving the advance in crude prices was a fire on Monday at Alon USA's(ALJ) Big Spring, Texas, refinery. The fire, which left four employees injured, was extinguished, but all operations at the 67,000-barrel-per-day refinery have ceased.

The fire was the latest in a series of bullish news events that have helped elevate the price of oil in recent weeks. Last week, Valero(VLO) reported that power outages at its Delaware City, Del., refinery were affecting output there.

Also, Venezuela's national oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, announced that it was cutting supplies of crude to Exxon Mobil(XOM) because of an ongoing trade dispute.

These events, along with recent rumors that OPEC might cut oil exports when it meets again in March, have "spooked the oil market," according to Stephen Schork, principal at the Schork Group.

"I can't justify the direction that crude prices are heading," Schork said. "High crude oil and petroleum product inventories and the current shakiness in the global economy should be keeping a lid on crude prices."

Meanwhile, energy stocks were broadly higher. ConocoPhillips (COP) was up 2% to $80.64. Chevron (CVX) rose 1.5% to $84.83. Exxon was 1.9% higher at $87.01.

Alon, though, was down 5.4%.

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