Oil rose the most in a week and gasoline climbed to the highest level in four months as Tropical Storm Isaac reduced output in the Gulf of Mexico and a fire in Venezuela shut part of the world’s second-biggest refinery. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed as much as 1.6 percent in New York and gasoline surged 4.1 percent. About 24 percent of U.S. oil production and 8.2 percent of natural-gas output from the Gulf is shut because of Isaac, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said yesterday. Firefighters in Venezuela are working to extinguish two storage tanks after a gas explosion at the Amuay plant, part of the Paraguana complex, killed at least 39 people. “There’s a weather-related premium creeping into the market,� said Jonathan Barratt, chief executive officer of Barratt’s Bulletin, a commodity newsletter in Sydney, who forecasts WTI has resistance at $98.50 a barrel. The refinery halt “should be a temporary squeeze on prices,� he said. Oil for October delivery increased as much as $1.57 to $97.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $97.40 at 2:05 p.m. Sydney time. Front-month prices slid 12 cents to $96.15 on Aug. 24 and rose 0.2 percent last week. Futures are down 1.5 percent this year. Brent oil for October settlement rose $1.52, or 1.3 percent, to $115.11 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark grade’s premium to WTI was at $17.71, from $17.44 on Aug. 24. Storm Isaac Oil’s rally in New York may stall around $98.39 a barrel along a downward-sloping trend line going back to the 2012 intraday high of March 1, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sell orders tend to be clustered near chart- resistance levels. Crude’s 14-day relative strength index is also approaching 70, a reading that signals futures have risen too quickly for further gains to be sustainable. Energy companies including BP Plc (BP/), Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) and ConocoPhillips (COP) said yesterday that they evacuated personnel as Isaac approached. The Gulf is home to 23 percent of U.S. oil production, 7 percent of natural-gas output and 44 percent of refining capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, the single largest entry point for crude coming into the U.S., plans to suspend offloading oil tankers, Barb Hestermann, a spokeswoman for the port, said Aug. 25. Between 900,000 and 1 million barrels of oil a day is offloaded at the LOOP, she said. Isaac was about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west-southwest of Key West, Florida, with top winds of 65 miles per hour as of 11 p.m. New York time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. The storm is expected to become a hurricane in a day or so, the center said. Gasoline Surge The Amuay plant in Venezuela, with the capacity to process 645,000 barrels of oil a day, was halted as a result of the explosion on Aug. 25, according to Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez. The Paraguana complex has a capacity of about 950,000 barrels a day, second in size to Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL)’s Jamnagar refinery in India, data compiled by Bloomberg show. There was no structural damage to the processing units at the facility about 240 miles west of Caracas and production will resume within two days after the fires are out, Ramirez said. Gasoline for September delivery rose as much as 12.7 cents to $3.205 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest level since April 30. Hedge funds raised bullish bets on oil to a three-month high in the week ended Aug. 27, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitments of Traders report on Aug. 24. Money managers increased net-long positions, or wagers on rising prices, by 18 percent to the highest level since the week ended May 1, the report showed. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mike Anderson at Manderson34@bloomberg.net

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