- NEW YORK (AFP) - World oil
prices tore to all-time highs as a hurricane thundered near oil platforms,
oil-rich Venezuela faced a strike risk and Iraq fighting raged.
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- New York's benchmark light sweet crude for delivery in
September leapt 1.08 dollars to a record high settlement of 46.58 dollars
a barrel. It spiked at an all-time high 46.65 dollars.
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- London's Brent North Sea crude oil for September soared
1.59 dollars to a record finish of 43.88 dollars a barrel after hitting
an all-time high of 43.92 dollars.
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- Prices sizzled as fears grew that the world's producers
are already pumping at full stretch to meet hot global demand, meaning
any disruption would cause a shortfall.
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- A slew of risks faced traders: tropical storms, a vote
in Venezuela that could lead to a strike, Iraqi bloodshed possibly leading
to pipeline attacks, and the threat of terrorist attacks before the Olympics.
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- The market sweated as Hurricane Charley and Tropical
Storm Bonnie charged through the Gulf of Mexico, which is dotted with oil
platforms, industry analysts said.
-
- Charley was the more serious threat, said Wachovia economist
Jason Schenker. "It's much stronger and it's going through the Gulf,
causing some production disruption," he said.
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- Many traders were buying oil as a precaution ahead of
a recall referendum on Sunday directed at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
The vote has raised fears of strike action in the oil industry.
-
- "There is some fear there could be disturbances
as a result," said Refco market analyst Marshall Steeves.
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- "We will see."
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- The fifth-largest crude exporter, Venezuela produces
between 2.5 million and 2.6 million barrels per day, according to analysts,
and about 15 percent of the oil imported by the United States.
-
- Russian oil titan Yukos -- facing a bankruptcy threat
because of a massive tax bill -- further undermined confidence in oil supplies.
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- But the outlook improved a little as a Western bank was
asked to mediate in the Yukos oil saga.
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- The decision followed heavy pressure from US officials
on President Vladimir Putin's administration to come clean about what it
planned to do with Yukos amid fears of disruption in oil exports from the
world's number two producing nation.
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- Yukos produces about 1.7 million barrels of oil per day,
nearly as much as the maximum output of Iraq.
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- Iraq painted a grim backdrop.
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- Thousands of Iraqis descended on the holy city of Najaf
after Shiite Muslim militia leader Moqtada Sadr urged his men to fight
on even as US and Iraqi forces closed in on his stronghold.
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- Sadr's uprising has forced the closure of a southern
oil pipeline, halving Iraq's crude exports.
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- "There are also continued worries about Iraq,"
Schenker said.
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- "Terrorists might attack pipelines as a retribution
(for the attack on Najaf)."
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- Reports of a fire at a BP refinery in Whiting, Indiana,
which was later extinguished, supported prices of gasoline and the rest
of the market early in the day, traders said.
-
- Underlying the oil price surge was growing demand fed
by a global economic expansion, said Fimat analyst Mike Fitzpatrick.
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- "I am sure that at some point as prices go higher
and higher that is going to eat into it (demand), but apparently it has
not yet," he said.
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- China, the second-biggest oil consumer after the United
States, said Friday that its imports of crude oil in the first seven months
rose by nearly 40 percent from a year ago as its energy-hungry economy
expanded at close to double-digit levels.
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- Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights
reserved.
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