Crude oil prices in New York broke through the $100-a-barrel threshold Thursday — and the price of a gallon of regular rose by nearly 4 cents overnight to $3.15 in the metro Atlanta area — as violence in Libya continued to shake world financial markets.
The price of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange eventually settled back down at $96.61 a barrel, down $1.19 from the day before.
In Europe, the price of Brent grade of crude oil, another important benchmark, hit $119 a barrel before dropping back to $114 a barrel after a Bloomberg News report quoted an unidentified Saudi official saying that the kingdom was willing to make up for any lost Libyan oil.
U.S. pump prices for regular gasoline jumped by more than 3 cents a gallon overnight to $3.23, an increase of about 8 cents in the past week and 55 cents more than a year ago. The Atlanta area’s $3.15 a gallon was roughly 8 cents higher than a week ago and 56 cents above a year ago.
The International Energy Agency said that the violent uprising in Libya has forced oil companies to idle between 500,000 and 750,000 barrels per day of production. But IEA said it can make up for any lost shipments from Libya by tapping into large surpluses held by member countries, which include the U.S., the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
IEA said it is in close contact with OPEC as well. Saudi Arabia, the most important member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said that it would increase production to make up for any shortfalls due to unrest in Libya, if necessary. The Saudis currently produce about 8.5 million barrels of oil a day and have the capacity to produce more than 12 million barrels a day.
President Barack Obama added further reassurance at an afternoon news conference, telling reporters that oil prices should eventually stabilize. “We think we’ll be able to ride out the situation in Libya,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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