NEW YORK — Crude oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel Monday as the oil industry assessed damage from Hurricane Rita and traders worried that demand for heating oil could soar ahead of the winter months.

The strength of the economy, showing up in continued robust demand for housing, also helped boost prices, analysts said.

Light, sweet crude rose $1.63 to settle at $65.82 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after dropping to $62.65 earlier in the day.

Gasoline futures rose more than 4 cents to $2.1292 a gallon, after falling as low as $1.94. Heating oil rose nearly 11 cents to $2.0586 a gallon. Natural gas rose nearly 12 cents to $12.44 per million British thermal unit.

Monday’s report from the National Association of Realtors showed that sales of previously owned homes rose in August to the second-highest level ever — suggesting that U.S. consumer demand remained firm before Katrina and Rita hit.

“Maybe the economy is not hurt as much as people feared,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. “Tight supplies plus more demand means high prices.”

He added that oil markets are also jittery over the possibility of another tropical storm hitting the Gulf coast. Hurricane season isn’t officially over until November.

Rita gave only a glancing blow to crucial oil refineries in Texas, but consumers shouldn’t expect prices at the pump to fall to pre-Katrina levels anytime soon.

“Most areas of the country will see price increases in gasoline this week,” said Tom Kloza, analyst at Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J. The average U.S. retail price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $2.80 on Monday, up from $2.75 Sunday, but below the high of $3.06 on Sept. 5.

The average price a month ago, a few days before Hurricane Katrina hit, was $2.60.

Sixteen Texas oil refineries remained shut down after the storm, and crews found significant damage to at least one in the Port Arthur area, said Energy Department spokesman Craig Stevens.

The damage could lead to petroleum product shortages and further disrupt the heating oil and natural gas markets, which are usually volatile ahead of the winter months.

President Bush said Monday the government is prepared to again tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to alleviate any new pain at the pump.

“A lot of our production comes from the Gulf and when you have a Hurricane Katrina followed by a Hurricane Rita, it’s natural, unfortunately, that it’s going to affect supplies,” Bush said after a briefing at the Energy Department.

Seven refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont, Texas, and Lake Charles, La., were without power from Hurricane Rita, which left the 255,000-barrel-per-day Valero Energy Corp. plant in Port Arthur the most heavily damaged. That plant faces at least two weeks of repairs.

In other energy news:

 The International Energy Agency, run by industrialized, oil-importing countries, said Monday the agency would decide on whether a release of state-controlled stockpiles of crude and gasoline is warranted within a week or so based on Rita’s impact.

 The U.S. Minerals Management Service said Monday that 758 platforms in the Gulf remained unstaffed, up from Sunday. Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was totally shut down, and more than 78 percent of gas output was shut. Since Katrina hit a month ago, more than 34 million barrels of oil and 163 billion cubic feet of natural gas have been lost.

 Elsewhere, France’s largest oil refinery in Normandy was expected Monday to come to a complete halt as a strike over pay extends into its seventh day, oil company Total SA said.

 U.S. oil giant Chevron said it had restarted production at one of two oil platforms in Nigeria shut down last week because of threats from a southern militia, a company spokesman said. The Robertkiri facility produces 19,000 barrels of oil per day.

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Associated Press Writers Edith Balazs in Budapest, Hungary, and En-Lai Yeoh in Singapore contributed to this report.