NEW YORK, 15 May 2004 — New York’s crude oil prices shot to an all-time high yesterday, pressured by terrorism fears in the Middle East and hot global demand.
Light sweet crude for delivery in June spiked at $41.50 minutes after official trade opened, breaking the previous record of $41.15 set in October 1990, in the run-up to the Gulf War.
By late morning, however, the contract was trading at $41.06, down two cents from Thursday.
Brent North Sea crude oil for June delivery rose 26 cents to $38.75 per barrel.
“The market does not want to give up,” said Fimat USA market analyst Steve Bellino. “There are so much different factors supporting this market: OPEC, the Middle East, demand.”
Analysts say fears about instability in the Middle East, the world’s major oil reserve, have been fed by tensions in Iraq and are pumping up prices by an extra six to eight dollars a barrel.
Those concerns rose on May 1, when gunmen attacked a Saudi oil facility at Yanbu, killing five employees of the Swiss engineering group ABB and a Saudi national guard soldier.
Meanwhile, exports of Iraqi crude are still lagging at one million barrels per day, several days after saboteurs torched a vital feeder pipeline in the south of the country, oil officials said.
Further supporting the market, the International Energy Agency this week said booming economic growth was spurring world demand for oil at the fastest rate in 16 years.
The agency raised its 2004 oil demand forecast by 330,000 barrels per day to 80.6 million barrels per day.
