Oil prices set new highs today, underpinned by fresh evidence of strong Chinese demand, worries about sabotage in Iraq and fears of unrest in Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez faces a referendum this weekend on his rule.
News of an explosion at the US Whiting, Indiana refinery spiked US light crude futures to a record $45.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a jump of 40 cents on the day. London Brent set a record $42.85 a barrel, up 56 cents.
Prices have hit new records in all but one of the last 11 trading sessions, buoyed by world oil demand growth that is running at the fastest rate in 24 years and on concerns about stretched world production capacity.
China said crude imports into the world's second biggest consumer held strong in July at growth rate of 40 per cent over the same period last year. China's crude imports averaged 2.49 million bpd in the first seven months of 2004, also up 40 per cent compared to the matching period in 2003, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The import figures suggest China's demand for oil has not been dented yet by Beijing's efforts to rein in its strongly growing economy, or by high prices.
Chinese officials say high refinery runs by state oil company Sinopec continue to attract heavy crude imports.
In the United States, BP said a blast at its 420,000-barrel-a-day Whiting refinery, the nation's third biggest, had closed a petroleum product processing unit.
Iraqi oil exports flowed normally from the country's southern fields to offshore terminals after pumping resumed through a main pipeline sabotaged on Monday, an official from Iraq's South Oil Company said.
But traders worry that Iraqi rebels loyal to Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will attack oil infrastructure after US forces stormed the holy city Najaf to quell a week-long uprising by Sadr supporters.
There were also concerns that Sunday's referendum in Venezuela may lead to violence if Chavez is defeated, and put the country's oil shipments at risk.