Oil prices hit fresh records today after a fire at a big US refinery underlined the vulnerability of supplies at a time when global demand is accelerating at the fastest pace in more than 20 years.
US light crude struck $44.73 a barrel, 32 cents up from Tuesday's settlement and the highest in the 21-year history of crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
London's Brent crude tipped $41.35 a barrel, a record for the contract since it started trading in 1988 on the International Petroleum Exchange.
The latest in a string of rallies this week came after a fire shut a gasoline-producing unit at BP Plc's 470,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Texas, the third-biggest plant in the United States. The flash fire was quickly extinguished.
Prices bounded higher yesterday after the Russian government barred oil major Yukos from access to its bank accounts, threatening its ability to continue exports.
Yukos, which pumps 1.7 million bpd, or 2 per cent of world supplies, is battling bankruptcy from a multi-billion dollar tax debt, threatening its ability to continue exports.
Oil has rallied more than 30 per cent this year on worries that soaring demand, especially in the United States and China, has tightly stretched supplies, leaving little leeway for any disruption in the supply chain.
Fears of inadequate supply have been deepened by security concerns in Saudi Arabia and Iraq as well as uncertainty in Venezuela and Nigeria - all OPEC members.