NEW YORK ¡ª Following is a summary of top stories in the energy sector Thursday afternoon.

Pump Prices Up Again as Crude Slips

Gasoline prices shot up to yet another record at the pump Thursday, while crude oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel as the dollar gained strength against the euro.

At the pump, the average national price of a gallon of regular jumped 2.3 cents overnight to $3.56 a gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices have risen nearly 14 cents in a week.

May gasoline futures fell 3.21 cents to settle at $3.0186 a gallon.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery lost $2.24 to settle at $116.06 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Analysts said the dollar's rise against the euro gave investors a chance to lock in profits from oil's recent record run. Investors see commodities such as oil as a less effective hedge against inflation when the dollar strengthens. A stronger greenback makes oil more expensive to investors overseas.

In other Nymex trading, May heating oil futures fell 6.67 cents to settle at $3.2583 a gallon.

Natural Gas Supplies Grow

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural-gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 24 billion cubic feet to 1.285 trillion cubic feet for the week ending April 18, a smaller increase than the average expectation of analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.

The inventory level was below the five-year average of 1.31 trillion cubic feet in underground storage and last year's storage level of 1.559 trillion cubic feet.

Natural gas for May delivery rose 0.9 cent to settle at $10.790 per 1,000 cubic feet on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

ConocoPhillips Net Rose as Downstream Lagged

ConocoPhillips opened the earnings season for major integrated oil companies with results that beat Wall Street forecasts. Net income rose to $4.14 billion, or $2.62 a share, from $3.55 billion, or $2.12 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

On average, Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings per share of $2.42.

The company said net income from its upstream exploration and production arm rose nearly 24 percent to $2.89 billion, as higher commodity prices offset lower volumes and higher taxes.

Production in the recent quarter averaged 1.79 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, down from 2.02 million barrels a year ago. The company attributed the decline to the expropriation of its Venezuelan oil projects last year and its exit from Dubai, as well as normal field decline and unplanned downtime in the U.S.

Earnings fell sharply on the downstream refining and marketing side, to $502 million from $1.14 billion a year ago, as refining margins were squeezed by high crude oil prices.

Still, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit expects a banner year for ConocoPhillips. "Unless oil prices collapse from current levels, even with lower refining margins we expect 2008 earnings to be a record," he said.

Occidental Petroleum Posts Profit

Occidental Petroleum Corp. reported earnings as well, posting profit of $1.85 billion, or $2.23 per share, compared with $1.21 billion, or $1.43 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose to $6.02 billion from $4.02 billion.

Thomson Financial said analysts expected profit of $1.98 per share on revenue of $6.28 billion.

Daily production of oil and natural gas rose to 607,000 barrels from 560,000 barrels a year earlier, mainly because of the company's Dolphin project, a Gulf region natural-gas pipeline that began operating in the third quarter of 2007.

Ensco Earnings Rise on Rates

Ensco International Inc. reported a 17 percent jump in first-quarter profit, as the drilling contractor charged oil producers more to use its offshore rigs.

The Dallas company earned $272 million, or $1.90 per share in the first quarter, compared with $232 million, or $1.54 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts expected the oilfield company to earn $1.81 per share, on average, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

"Higher day rates in the international markets and improved utilization in the Gulf of Mexico jackup market combined with lower operating costs resulted in the positive surprise," said Calyon Securities analyst Mark Urness.

Ensco's existing fleet consists almost entirely of drilling platforms known as jackup rigs that typically operate in older, shallow-water fields and go for lower rates.

The company also added to its bet that rising demand and dwindling resources will force oil explorers further out to sea, saying it plans to spend about $515 for a fifth deepwater rig on top of four it already has on order.

Oil to Hit $225 a Barrel?

If you think oil and gasoline prices are high now, they may seem cheap before long, according to CIBC World Markets Chief Economist Jeff Rubin.

Rubin, who predicted three years ago that oil would reach $100 a barrel, thinks it will climb to $225 a barrel in four years. Gasoline could be around $10 a gallon by that time, he says.

It's all about tight supplies and rising demand. Rubin points out that almost all the growth in global petroleum liquids production since 2005 has been in natural gas liquids. Those, he says, are not a useful substitute for oil and can't be economically turned into gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.

"Stripping out natural gas liquids, oil production has not grown for over two years, which certainly goes a long way to explaining why oil prices have doubled over that period," Rubin said. "It is increasingly clear that the outlook for oil supply signals a period of unprecedented scarcity."

Iraq Oil Exports Increase

Iraq boosted its crude-oil exports by 3.3 million barrels in March over the previous month, bringing in nearly $15.5 billion, according to the country's oil ministry.

Total crude oil exports stood at 59.4 million barrels for March and grossed $5.64 billion. That compares with 56.1 million barrels yielding $5.04 billion.

There is still a wide difference in exports between the southern port of Basra and the northern city of Kirkuk. Ministry figures showed a total of 49.5 million barrels were sent abroad through Basra while other 9.9 million barrels were exported from the Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey's Ceyhan terminal on the Mediterranean Sea.

On Wednesday, the special U.S. auditor for Iraq released new data on oil revenues which show that the government could reap as much as $70 billion this year, thanks to soaring oil prices in international markets.