Oil firms above $110 ahead of U.S. oil data

Oil rose by more than a dollar on Thursday as a number of U.S. refineries remained shut because of hurricane disruption and ahead of U.S. government data excepted to show falls in gasoline stocks.
U.S. crude rose $1.10 to 110.45 a barrel by 0903 GMT. London Brent crude jumped $1.05 to $109.11.
Hurricane Gustav did not cause much physical damage to oil facilities in the U.S. Gulf region, the hub of the oil industry in the United States.
But 11 refineries in the U.S. Gulf area, representing just over 11 percent of the U.S. fuel supply, remained shut as of Wednesday due to a lack of reliable electricty supplies in the wake of Gustav. More storms were seen under way.
"There are still concerns over supply issues. A lot of the Gulf of Mexico capacity was shut down and some refineries are still closed. We don't know how long they'll remain offline," said Gerard Rigby, an analyst at Fuel First Consulting in Sydney.
Entergy Corp, Louisiana's largest utility, said earlier this week that the worst damage was in the New Orleans-Baton Rouge area, home to some of the biggest U.S. plants, including Exxon Mobil's giant Baton Rouge facility.
Entergy said on Wednesday the full recovery of its power grid might be weeks away, while the company was restoring some power supply.
"The market will be watching for future hurricanes and it is still a risk right through to the end of this month," said Helen Henton, the head of Commodities Research at Standard Chartered.
Hurricane Ike strengthened into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane in the open Atlantic on Wednesday although it posed no immediate threat to land. Tropical Storm Hanna intensified to a lesser degree as it swirled over the Bahamas toward the southeast U.S. Coast.
Oil traders were closely watching weekly U.S. government oil data due out later on Thursday.
Analysts in a Reuters poll of forecast a slight 200,000-barrel increase in crude oil stocks in the week to Aug. 29, when Gustav was approaching the U.S. Gulf.
The data was expected to show a 1.4 million-barrel drawdown in gasoline stocks and a 500,000-barrel increase in distillate fuels.
New York RBOB gasoline futures were rising slightly more sharply than crude.