World oil price tops $81
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
SINGAPORE, Sept 18 (AFP): Oil prices topped 81 dollars a barrel for the first time today, setting another record high amid fears of critically tight supplies for the winter season in the United States.
OPEC's announcement last week that it would pump an extra 500,000 barrels per day from November has failed to stop the surge in price, with some analysts predicting it could keep soaring to 85 dollars and beyond.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, jumped 57 cents to 81.14 dollars in Singapore trade at 1:56 pm (0556 GMT).
The jump followed a run overnight in New York, when the contract spiked 1.47 dollars to 80.57 dollars per barrel after an earlier intra-day high of 80.70.
Brent North Sea crude for November delivery was 23 cents higher at 77.21 dollars a barrel.
Abdalla Salem El-Badri, chief of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said Friday that 80 dollars a barrel for oil did not reflect the current supply and demand situation.
Tony Nunan, of Mitsubishi Corp's international petroleum business in Tokyo, agreed demand is the driving factor despite OPEC's production increase.
"As demand increases in the fourth quarter we're going to see drawdowns in inventory and I think that's starting to play here," Nunan said.
Goldman Sachs said they were raising their year-end 2007 price forecast to 85 dollars per barrel, "with a high risk of a spike above 90 dollars per barrel," and said crude could hit 95 dollars by the end of next year.
London-based analysts, the Centre for Global Energy Studies, said Monday that the world "will remain short of oil and prices will continue to rise" unless OPEC put enough crude onto the market at prices to attract buyers.
Investors are worried that crude supplies are inadequate to meet demand as winter approaches in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer, and other countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
An energy policy adviser to industrialised countries, the International Energy Agency, last week lowered its predictions for global crude demand this year and next because of ongoing turbulence across financial markets.
OPEC's announcement last week that it would pump an extra 500,000 barrels per day from November has failed to stop the surge in price, with some analysts predicting it could keep soaring to 85 dollars and beyond.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, jumped 57 cents to 81.14 dollars in Singapore trade at 1:56 pm (0556 GMT).
The jump followed a run overnight in New York, when the contract spiked 1.47 dollars to 80.57 dollars per barrel after an earlier intra-day high of 80.70.
Brent North Sea crude for November delivery was 23 cents higher at 77.21 dollars a barrel.
Abdalla Salem El-Badri, chief of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said Friday that 80 dollars a barrel for oil did not reflect the current supply and demand situation.
Tony Nunan, of Mitsubishi Corp's international petroleum business in Tokyo, agreed demand is the driving factor despite OPEC's production increase.
"As demand increases in the fourth quarter we're going to see drawdowns in inventory and I think that's starting to play here," Nunan said.
Goldman Sachs said they were raising their year-end 2007 price forecast to 85 dollars per barrel, "with a high risk of a spike above 90 dollars per barrel," and said crude could hit 95 dollars by the end of next year.
London-based analysts, the Centre for Global Energy Studies, said Monday that the world "will remain short of oil and prices will continue to rise" unless OPEC put enough crude onto the market at prices to attract buyers.
Investors are worried that crude supplies are inadequate to meet demand as winter approaches in the United States, the world's biggest energy consumer, and other countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
An energy policy adviser to industrialised countries, the International Energy Agency, last week lowered its predictions for global crude demand this year and next because of ongoing turbulence across financial markets.