LONDON, 18 August 2004 — World oil prices resumed their upward march yesterday on market concerns over a large drop in exports from Iraq and the ongoing financial crisis at Russian oil giant Yukos, analysts said.

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in October climbed 17 cents to $42.86 per barrel in late deals in London.

Prices remained a long way behind Monday’s all-time high of $44.11 in London, largely because of the expiry of the September contract which was replaced by the October contract as the new benchmark.

New York’s main crude oil contract leapt to an all-time high yesterday. New York’s benchmark contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, surged 90 cents to an unprecedented $46.95 a barrel in late trade, topping Monday’s record of $46.91.

Prices reversed earlier losses caused by easing fears of disruptions to supplies from Venezuela, the world’s fifth largest exporter of crude. Traders had breathed easier earlier yesterday following news that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had comfortably won a weekend referendum on his mandate, easing fears of instability in the country’s oil industry. Export of crude from Iraq’s southern oil terminals have been cut by half for a week now because of threats to infrastructure, an oil company official said yesterday. “One of the two pipelines is closed for security reasons and pumping stands at around 36-42,000 barrels an hour”, against 80,000 normally, the official of the Southern Oil Company told AFP.

Against a backdrop of supply worries, traders were waiting anxiously for weekly estimates of US oil inventories due to be published today. “All eyes will be on what’s going to happen to the stocks figures,” said Robert Laughlin, a trader at GNI-Man Financial.

Market expectations were for a fall in crude oil inventories of one million barrels, a drop of 800,000 in those of gasoline and an increase of 1.3 million in distillate stocks, he said. The stock levels could show the effect of Hurricane Charley, the worst US storm in 12 years, traders said.

“You’ve got to be very careful about the Gulf of Mexico because that was shut on Tuesday and Wednesday last week because they were very nervous about the hurricane and what could happen to the platforms,” said Laughlin. “So the draws could actually be slightly larger on the products.”