Crude Oil

Crude oil futures rose in New York, reaching a record closing price above $98 a barrel, on concern fuel stockpiles will drop as the heating season gets under way.

Futures have surged 21 percent in the past two months as the dollar fell and U.S. inventories declined. Supplies of crude oil and distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, fell last week, according to an Energy Department report on Nov. 21. Transactions were lighter than usual today as some traders took a long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will load 24.5 million barrels a day onto tankers in the four weeks to Dec. 8, compared with 23.8 million barrels in the month ended Nov. 10, Oil Movements said. It will be OPEC's 14th consecutive increase and the biggest this year, according to the company, which tracks shipments.

OPEC, which produces more than 40 percent of the world's oil, is scheduled to discuss crude-oil production for the first quarter of 2008 at a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 5.