The price of Brent North Sea crude oil reached a new record high of $55,25 per barrel in trading in London on Thursday amid concerns of a supply crunch, despite the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’s (Opec) move to hike output.
The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in April rose by 37 cents to reach the new record level in electronic dealing before the start of formal pit trading, beating the previous high of $54,95 reached on Wednesday.
Brent’s fresh historic high came as New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, hit a record $56,70 in electronic deals on Thursday.
Prices began hitting new summits a day before after the United States Department of Energy released data showing falls to inventories of gasoline and distillates.
The Department of Energy said gasoline supplies dropped by 2,9-million barrels and distillates by 1,9-million barrels in the week ended March 11.
The falls sparked worries that supplies would struggle to keep up with robust global demand for energy.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy said that US crude inventories had risen by 2,6-million barrels.
The surge in prices came despite a move by Opec on Wednesday to hike its output quota.
Opec, meeting in Iran, agreed to raise its crude oil production ceiling from 27-million to 27,5-million per day, and said in a statement it will consider raising quotas by a further 500 000 barrels per day if oil prices remain high. — Sapa-AFP