Crude oil prices rose to more than $48 a barrel Friday, Nov. 19, as concerns about winter supplies of heating oil were fueled by a reported refinery outage in Venezuela.

Rising U.S. oil inventories have helped to lower oil prices in recent weeks, but continued declines in the nation’s distillate inventories, which includes heating oil, diesel and jet fuel, remains a concern.

In addition, the rising quantity of crude hitting America’s shores is spurring speculation among traders that OPEC could consider trimming output at its next meeting in December.

Representatives for Iran and Venezuela have suggested such a cut may be necessary to prevent prices from plummeting, The Associated Press reported.

After briefly jumping to $48.70 a barrel, light, sweet crude for December delivery was up $2.22 to $48.44 per barrel Nov. 19 at close on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The report of a refinery outage in Venezuela served as a further catalyst of price variations on Friday.

The AP reported Friday that the Curacao Isla refinery, owned by Venezuela’s state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, shut down completely Thursday morning due to a power failure and was still inactive.

The price of crude remained about $6.75 below the record closing price of $55.17 set twice in late October.

The pre-winter oil supply fears that gripped the market earlier this fall have dissipated in recent weeks thanks to high levels of imports and rising production in the Gulf of Mexico, where output had been hobbled for weeks following Hurricane Ivan.