Oil prices bubbled higher on Friday on worries that a cold winter in the United States and Europe could lead to a squeeze on supplies of heating oil.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, climbed by 55 cents to $46,77 a barrel in electronic deals at 11am GMT.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in January increased by 62 cents to $43,42 a barrel.
”There are a lot of concerns about the cold snaps in Europe and in the US,” said Keith Pascall, a trader with brokers GNI-Man Financial.
”Heating oil has been very, very strong in the last few days. Gas oil is up again. The strength is finally coming into crude oil.”
Markets have been volatile in recent days as traders gauge the risk of a winter supply crunch.
Prices fell on Thursday after a smaller-than-expected fall in US natural gas supplies and weaker demand forecasts from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) for next year.
The US Energy Department said on Thursday that stocks of natural gas, widely used for heating, fell by 168-million cubic metres in the past week to 92,99-billion cubic metres, but the decline was much smaller than expected.
On Wednesday, the department said that US stocks of crude oil had risen over the past week by 800 000 barrels to 292,3-million barrels.
Meanwhile, Opec estimated global demand growth of 2,5-million barrels per day this year, cutting its forecast by 120 000 barrels per day (bpd).
It also lowered its forecast for 2005 oil demand growth by 180 000 bpd to 1,49-million bpd. — Sapa-AFP