Crude prices have risen to over $55 a barrel raising fresh fears that a $60 pricetag may be fast on its way. Concerns about global supplies of heating
oil are believed to have cause the recent spike in prices as winter gets ready to set in across the world.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, Crude oil futures for December delivery rose 70 cents to settle at a price of $55.17 whilst prices on the London
International Petroleum Exchange jumped by 50 cents to $51.22 a barrel
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Brent North Sea crude soared to an unprecedented $US51.65 and ended at a record high close of $US51.22, up 50 cents.
After a brief decline in prices on Thursday due to profit taking, the market bounced back when a US Department of Interior report showed only a
"negligible improvement" in crude production from wells in the Gulf of Mexico, recently hit by devastating hurricanes.
Prices shot up earlier in the week after a US Department of Energy weekly snapshot showed US stocks of distillates - mostly diesel and heating oil -
fell 1.9 million barrels to 119.0 million in the week ending October 15. It was the fifth consecutive weekly decline.
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Reports from the US Energy Dept. showed that US inventories of distilate fuels which include heating oil and diesel, dropped for the fifth consecutive
week leaving supplies down 10% from this time last year. Coupled with the strong demand for heating oil this winter the prices have risen sharply and
show no signs of abating. Forecasters are predicting a particularly cold winter for 2004.
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