Crude oil prices rose above 61 dollars a barrel Wednesday as traders worried that Tropical Storm Dennis might disrupt shipments and cause refinery outages along the US Gulf coast.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for August delivery rose 1.69 dollars to end at 61.28 dollars per barrel. Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the August Brent crude-oil futures contract climbed 1.56 dollars to settle at 59.85 dollars a barrel.

The US National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that Tropical Storm Dennis might strengthen to a hurricane soon. The storm might enter the Gulf in three days. As states along the Gulf coast received more than half of US oil imports and were home to 50 percent of the nation's refining capacity, traders concerned that the possible arrival of another hurricane would cause shipment disruptions and refinery outages.

Hurricane Ivan in September cut 43.8 million barrels of oil production and sent oil prices sharply higher. The Atlantic hurricane season lasted from June through November.

Source: Xinhua