Oil prices rose significantly Thursday, surpassing $67 a barrel on concerns about gasoline supplies ahead of the U.S. summer driving season. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude jumped 70 cents to $67.15 a barrel, mirroring a surge in gasoline futures to a five-month high around $2 a gallon (3.8 liters). Concerns about U.S. gasoline inventories emerged Wednesday when a government report showed the biggest weekly decline in supplies since 2003. The U.S. petroleum industry is in the process of switching from the water-polluting gasoline additive MTBE to ethanol, which analysts say could cause price spikes and supply disruptions. Oil prices are about $4 below the record $70.85 reached last year after hurricanes knocked out one-quarter of U.S. energy production. They have climbed from below $20 in a four-year rally driven partly by fast-growing global demand, particularly from China and India.
