July crude rose 35 cents to close at $68 a barrel, a closing level not seen since April 13. July reformulated gas rose 2.1% to approach a three-year high of $2.272 a gallon amid tight supply.
The Energy Department reported Wednesday that refinery utilization fell to 89.2% of capacity for the week ended June 8, down from 89.6% a week earlier. A week before that, capacity stood at 91.1%. See full story.
The CBOE Oil Index (OIX :774.26, +12.41, +1.6% ) closed 1.6% higher at 775 points. The Philadelphia Oil (OSX.X :0.00, 0.00, 0.0% ) rose 1.2% by the closing bell and the Amex Natural Gas Index (XNG : 532.12, +6.10, +1.2% ) also rose 1.2%, hitting a record level during the day.
The end week on up note as oil tops $68
The overall market also provided a push for the energy sector as the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJ :13,639.48, +85.76, +0.6% ) closed up 85 points. FBR on Friday recommended shares of jackup drilling contractors Noble Corp. (NE :95.36, +0.94, +1.0% ) , Ensco International (ESV :62.75, +0.41, +0.7% ) and Global Santa Fe (GSF :71.67, +1.05, +1.5% ) .
"Based on a comparison of the jackup drillers to the U.S. land drillers, as well as our service coverage group, we believe the current valuations of NE, ESV, and GSF reflect an expectation in the market that day rates for their rigs will start to decline in the second half," FBR said in a note to clients.
"Our proprietary supply and demand analysis continues to show a very robust international jackup rig market where demand growth continues to outpace supply growth on an annualized basis, a trend that shows little signs of abating," FBR said.
Shares of Noble Corp. rose 1% to $95.36 after hitting an all-time high in intraday trading. Ensco International closed up 41 cents at $62.75. Global Santa Fe added 1.5% to $71.67, also hitting a new all-time high during the day. In the utility sector, Energy East Corp. (EAS : 23.25, +0.26, +1.1% ) rose 26 cents to $23.25 after it said it plans to make more than $3 billion in reliability and infrastructure investments over the next five years.
The investments include $900 million for electric system reliability in upstate New York, $500 million for the Maine Power Reliability Program, to improve and expand the existing transmission network, and the planned repowering of the Russell generating station using environmentally cleaner natural gas, the utility company said.
