New York ? Oil prices neared $49 a barrel Friday, capping a rise of 7 percent for the week, as Gulf of Mexico crude production rebounded at a slower-than-expected rate in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.

Light crude for November delivery rose 42 cents to settle at a new high of $48.88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of oil is up 73 percent from a year ago.

The federal Minerals Management Service reported Friday that daily oil production in the Gulf remains 27 percent below normal at 1.2 million barrels per day — the same level as Thursday. The agency said 10 million barrels of oil, the equivalent of 1.7 percent of annual production in the region, have been lost since last Monday, when offshore producers began evacuating crews.

“There continues to be hope for a quicker rebound in output,” said John Kilduff, senior oil analyst at Fimat USA in New York. “Today’s figures confirmed that little or no progress was made yesterday.”