Refining worries top record prices

Continuing worries about supply and lack of refining capacity caused the price of crude oil to go up to record levels on Monday.

West Texas Intermediate July contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange were up 58 cents to $59.05 per barrel after it had gone up as high as $59.23 per barrel for a period of time in Asian trade.

August contracts for WTI rose to $60 per barrel and contracts for delivery later in the year traded at between $60 and $61 per barrel in New York.

Brent crude August contracts rose 59 cents to $58.35 per barrel. OPEC’s action last week to raise production quotas by 500,000 barrels per day had no influence on prices, nor did the OPEC president’s announcement that he would consider upping quotas by another 500,000 barrels pr day if prices continued to go up by the end of the week.

Analysts said that upping quotas would not help prices in the absence of extra capacity to refine the extra oil.