U.S. oil tops $93 on Mexico, Mideast fears

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. oil prices topped $93 a barrel Monday after Mexico's state oil company shut one-fifth of its oil production amid fears Turkey would invade Iraq.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose $1.67, or 1.82 percent, to a record $93.53 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract reached as high as $93.80 a barrel in earlier trading.

Brent crude for December settlement rose $1.63, or 1.8 percent, to a record $90.32 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. It had reached $90.49, the highest since trading began in 1988.

Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex -- one of the largest U.S. crude suppliers -- shut 600,000 barrels of daily crude production due to a Gulf of Mexico storm. Pemex, which produces about 3.2 million barrels of crude oil a day, said it hoped to resume production later this week.

Separately, Turkey's foreign minister said his government was considering "all options" including a cross-border military offensive to deal with Kurdish rebels operating from Iraq.

Natural gas gained 17 cents, or 2.13 percent, at $7.97 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Heating oil rose 3.21 cents, or 1.32 percent, at $2.4646 a gallon.

Reformulated-gasoline blendstock for oxygen blending added 5.34 cents, or 2.35 percent, at $2.3274 a gallon on supply concerns.

AAA said the average U.S. retail regular unleaded gasoline price was $2.856 a gallon, up 0.7 cents from Sunday's $2.849 a gallon.