World oil prices hover around record highs as demand for gasoline in USA peaks and geopolitical concerns linked to North Korea and Iran persist. New York's main contract- light sweet crude for delivery in August, settled at US$75.14 per barrel.
The contract had struck an all-time intraday record of US$75.40 per barrel in trading Wednesday, exceeding the previous intraday peak of US$75.35 on April 21. In London, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery closed at US$74.08 per barrel in electronic trading.
The report from the Department of Energy has shown a worse than forecast drop in weekly crude oil inventories. The DoE inventories report showed crude oil reserves fell 2.4 million barrels to 341.3 million over the week ended June 30, though a decline of just 650,000 barrels was originally forecast. Surprisingly, though the report showed that gasoline demand was at unprecedented level, gasoline stocks showed a rise of 700,000 barrels to 213.1 million. Analysts had predicted a drop of 2.0 million barrels.
Contributing to geo political tensions, North Korea has fired at least seven test missiles on Wednesday, and Iran has postponed crucial talks in Brussels over its nuclear program.
07-Jul-06 
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