PRICES JUMP AS IRAQI OIL SALE DELAYED : RETAILERS CAN'T PREDICT EFFECT AT GAS PUMPS.

Byline: Vivian Marino Associated Press 

The turmoil in Iraq sent energy prices sharply higher Tuesday, but industry experts said the runup shouldn't have a major impact on consumers when they gas up their cars and heat their homes.

Ample stockpiles are expected to help stabilize prices, which rose about $2 a barrel overnight on reports the United Nations delayed the sale of Iraqi oil in response to that country's attacks on Kurds in U.N.-designated safe zones.

President Clinton also unleashed 27 cruise missiles at military targets in southern Iraq early Tuesday. Later, the United States launched cruise missiles for the second time in 24 hours at Iraqi targets.

``This doesn't really change the supply-demand issue in the world,'' John Hervey, an oil analyst with Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, said of the collapsed Iraqi oil deal. He noted that even without Iraq's oil, supplies should remain plentiful in the face of declining demand.

Prices eased from their highs Tuesday. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude oil for delivery in October settled at $23.40, up $1.15 from Friday. The benchmark crude had traded as high as $23.80 a barrel earlier in the day - the highest level since April.

Refined petroleum products also shot up, but they too retreated from their intraday highs.

Officials at two big California gasoline retailers - San Francisco-based Chevron Products U.S.A. and Arco Products Co. - said it is too early to tell whether the crisis will have any impact on consumer prices.

Chevron spokesman Jim Hendon said retail prices usually fall after Labor Day because demand drops. And crude oil supplies, which drive retail prices, are adequate.

Atlantic-Richfield spokesman Scott Loll said the local prices, which peaked in April, have been falling about 1 cent to 2 cents a gallon per week since then.As for the weeks ahead, he notes that oil companies are precluded by law from publicly predicting price trends.

The U.N.-Iraq pact, signed more than three months ago, would have allowed Iraq to sell $2 billion worth of oil over six months - about 700,000 barrels a day - to buy food and medicine for its people, hard-hit by six years of U.N. trade sanctions from the Gulf War.