Crude oil reaches new records

Crude oil prices soared again on Friday, with West Texas Intermediate September contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange going as high as a record $67.10 per barrel before settling to a close $1.06 higher than Thursday’s close at $66.86 per barrel.

WTI gained 6.5 percent this week, and the front month US crude oil contract has risen 52 percent since the beginning of the year. Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange in London gained 75 cents to close at $66.12 per barrel, after reaching a new high of $66.38 earlier in the day. Brent crude has gained almost 10 percent on the week.

Fears of terrorism in the Saudi Arabia, Britain, and Australia, as well as Iran’s moves to reactivate its nuclear program were factors in this week’s rise in oil prices, but reports of lower gasoline inventories in the US coupled with statistics showing that the higher prices were not slowing demand, which was reported up 1.4 percent over the past four weeks, seemed to be the real movers in the price hikes.

A refinery production stoppage at the ConocoPhillips refinery in Illinois on Thursday was just the latest in a series of 14 other refineries reporting unscheduled closures in the past three weeks. In response, Nymex gasoline futures hit $2.003 per gallon on Friday.