West Texas Intermediate crude closes back on record

In afternoon trade on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for September delivery was up 93 cents to $62.31 per barrel.

It had hit a new high of $62.50 per barrel on Wednesday.

Contracts for February and March of next year were trading above $65 per barrel, and all WTI futures until December 2011 were priced at over $60 per barrel. Friday’s price for Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange in London rose by 95 cents to $61.07, below its record high of $61.26 per barrel, also reached on Wednesday.

A number of events and circumstances led to the price increases, including several with political implications in oil producing nations. During the week King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died, as did the vice-president of Sudan.

In addition, the leader of Mauritania was ousted in a coup d’etat. In addition, there was the prospect of more storms in the Caribbean that could move into the Gulf of Mexico and threaten oil production facilities.

Also of concern were a series of shutdown of US refineries for unscheduled maintenance, reducing capacity at a time when the system has been working close to capacity. In response, September Nymex gasoline futures were up 2.17 cents on the day and over 4 percent for the week, to $1.8210 per gallon near the close of trade on Friday.