LONDON (Reuters) - Gasoline rode high at over $100 a barrel on Thursday as the United States scrambled to replace fuel supplies lost when Hurricane Katrina slammed into Gulf of Mexico rigs and refiners.
President George W Bush told Americans he expected close ally Saudi Arabia to do "everything it can" to provide the United States with more oil and said there would be zero tolerance of price gouging at the gasoline pump.
But Europe was unnerved by how ill-prepared the world's biggest economy was for Hurricane Katrina's rampage.
The U.S. holds plenty of crude in its strategic stockpile and has offered to loan some of it to refiners, but the gesture does nothing to address an immediate shortage of gasoline. European operators dashed to charter ships to the U.S. coast.
White House economic adviser Ben Bernanke predicted gasoline prices would go higher then drop when supplies are restored.
"Hurricane Katrina has been an eye opener, highlighting the inadequacy of the global refining system," said Merrill Lynch.
The European Commission said it wanted to revive a plan to coordinate EU oil stocks. In Germany, election challenger Angela Merkel said she could envisage tapping German oil reserves, but her comments were smartly rebuffed by the government.
France announced it would give financial aid to millions of families to help them cope with sky-high oil prices, and promised to boost renewable energy.
"We have entered the post-oil era," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told a news conference.
The European Central Bank raised its inflation forecasts for this year and next, noting soaring oil prices were pushing up the cost of goods and services. The ECB raised its projection for the crude price by $12 to $62.8 a barrel in 2006.
U.S. crude was up six cents at $69 a barrel by 1644 GMT, below the record $70.85 hit on Tuesday. London Brent crude was up 28 cents at $67.30 a barrel.
Gasoline futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) continued their relentless rise to a high of $2.465 a gallon then eased to $2.355, up 9.97 cents on the day.
European gasoline barges hit a record $855 a ton, and U.S. heating oil touched a record $2.15 a gallon.
"We really need to see signs of slowing demand from China, India and the United States before prices can come off appreciably," analysts at Refco said.
But with more hurricanes in prospect risks to U.S. supply remained. "This hurricane season has been unusually active and the peak is just now approaching in early September."
GASOLINE
The U.S. oil industry remained shaken after Hurricane Katrina, with most offshore production from the Gulf of Mexico down, about 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity paralyzed, and pipelines struggling to restart. At least 20 rigs or platforms were adrift, listing, sunk or missing.
The U.S. Department of Energy said some of the eight refineries shut by Katrina could take months to restart, with reports that floodwaters swamped at least three in Louisiana.
European operators have booked 20 gasoline cargoes to the United States since Monday to take advantage of red hot U.S. gasoline prices, brokers said on Thursday.
"Crazy gas (gasoline) prices are certainly reflecting a perception of tighter supply in that product," said Bob Frye, a trader at Access Futures and Options Trading.
"As soon as we start hearing about isolated pockets where gas is unavailable, the emotional response is likely to drive things higher."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it would ease environmental standards of gasoline and diesel nationwide for two weeks to avert a fuel crunch.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) holds more than 700 million barrels of crude in salt caverns in Louisiana and Texas. It loaned 5.4 million barrels of oil to refiners last year to stabilize supplies after the weaker Hurricane Ivan.
Further potential supply disruption could come from Nigeria, where the main workers' union threatened a strike, saying proposed fuel price hikes by the government of the world's eighth-biggest crude exporter were unacceptable.