NEW YORK : Crude oil futures jumped to a record high closing on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday, as markets fretted over tight US supplies despite a decision to release small amounts from a strategic reserve.
The November contract for light sweet crude climbed 42 cents to 48.88 US dollars a barrel at the close. The latest price eclipsed the prior all-time record close on August 19 of 48.70 dollars and neared the intraday record of 49.40 dollars on August 20.
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In London, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November gained 20 cents to close at 45.33 dollars a barrel a day after reaching a new intraday record of 45.75 dollars.
Traders remained concerned about the US supply situation, with a new storm poised to hit the United States, despite a decision to release a small amount from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a loan to refiners.
The US Energy Department said Thursday it was preparing to release "a limited quantity" of crude oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve to ease shortages resulting from Hurricane Ivan.
Officials said Friday that Placid Refining Co. will receive 300,000 barrels of oil from the reserve to offset supply disruptions.
Kevin Kerr, a senior trader at Kwest International, said he saw little market impact from the move.
"It's like throwing a bucket of water on a raging forest fire," he said.
Marshall Steeves at Refco said a big portion of the gains came late in the day after news that much of the Gulf of Mexico oil production remained down.
"We're now 10 million barrels short," he said, adding that the market had "very strong technical momentum."
The analyst also cited uncertainty about Hurricane Jeanne, saying there were some concerns it might go across Florida and into the Gulf.
"We'll certainly see 50 dollars by early next week, it depends how much production is still off line," he said.
Prices surged earlier this week on news that US oil inventories tumbled 9.1 million barrels to their lowest levels since February last week in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.
Other factors affecting the market included sabotage of a pipeline going to the Basra refinery this week and more uncertainty about the future of Russian oil giant Yukos.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the go-ahead Friday for state firms to bid for the assets of oil giant Yukos if they are sold to pay off multibillion-dollar tax debts, but denied the aim was to nationalize the company.
Yukos is facing the forced sale of its main production asset, Yuganskneftegaz, which accounts for 60 percent of the firm's oil output, to pay off billions of dollars in back tax demands by the Russian state.
STU Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
