WTI, Brent both touch new highs

Crude oil prices were higher again on Monday, hitting new record highs in both London and New York before easing back slightly to more moderate gains.

April contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were 60 cents higher to $102.44 per barrel at the close of trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but not before rising to a new record high of $103.95 per barrel earlier in the session.

Brent crude also set a new record of $102.29 per barrel before settling back to a gain of 39 cents to trade at $100.49 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline traded essentially even at $2.67 per gallon while April heating oil added 3 cents to $2.84 per gallon and April natural gas dropped 1 one cent to $9.36 per million British thermal units.

The price jumps for crude oil came primarily on tensions in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez closed his nation’s embassy in Columbia and posted 10 battalions on the common border between the two South American countries after Columbia carried out an air strike Saturday on a rebel camp in Equador.

Both Equador and Venezuela are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Also on the geopolitical front, the US military struck against an al-Qaeda leader in Somalia on Sunday.

In addition, there is still no indication that OPEC will hike production quotas, despite a request from the US energy secretary to do so in an attempt to send crude prices lower.