Oil price surges on Mideast tensions

[MikeWB]

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Oil price surges on Mideast tensions
Oil prices hit two-week highs on Tuesday, rising about 3 percent, after a spike in Middle East tensions from Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane and a rally in U.S. gasoline futures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Turkey's shooting of its fighter jet a "stab in the back" that could have "serious consequences." Middle East tensions have already been heightened by Russian air raids over Syria to punish those it blamed for the downing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month.

U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 jumped 6 percent on an expected rise in road travel around Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

Gasoline supplies in New York Harbor, the delivery point for gasoline futures, were also tight amid lower imports and the delayed restart of the 70,000 barrels-per-day gasoline-making unit at Irving's St. John, New Brunswick refinery.

Refining margins for gasoline rose by about $1 a barrel in both the United States and Europe.

Brent LCOc1 settled up $1.29, or 2.9 percent, at $46.12 a barrel, after hitting a two-week high at $46.50.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 finished the session up $1.12, or 2.7 percent, at $42.87. It hit $43.46 earlier, its highest since Nov. 11.

Some of those gains came off in post-settlement trade after industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) reported a 2.6 million-barrel U.S. crude build for last week.