Crude oil jumps $120 per barrel level

Crude oil prices hit a new record in New York on Monday, going as high as $120.36 per barrel on supply worries after several news items out of the Middle East and Africa and on a decline in the value of the US dollar.

Among the events causing supply worries was a threat from Kurdish rebels to attack US interests after they claimed that the United States shared information with Turkey which facilitated recent Turkish bombing runs on Kurdish bases in northern Iraq.

Also in the Middle East region, Iran’s top ayatollah reiterated his nation’s earlier insistence that it will not curtail its nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, militants were reported to have attacked another oil facility, shutting down some production there.

At last report June contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at $119.91 per barrel, $3.59 higher than Friday’s close.

Nymex June gasoline was up 8 cents to $3.04 per gallon while June heating oil had added 9 cents to $3.31 per gallon and June natural gas had gained 42 cents to $11.19 per million British thermal units.

At-the-pump prices for gasoline and diesel in the United States, however, were down over the weekend, with unleaded regular gasoline falling 1.1 cent to $3.623 per gallon since Friday while diesel dropped just over 0.1 cent from Thursday’s price to $4.239 per gallon.