From AFP via Rawstory:
Oil prices streaked into new record territory for the second straight day Wednesday, boosted by a decline in US energy reserves and as the weakening dollar drew investments in commodities.
New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, crossed 115 dollars a barrel for the first time on its way to an intraday record high of 115.07. It settled up 1.14 dollars at a record close of 114.93 dollars.In London, Brent North Sea crude for June struck an intraday record high of 112.79 dollars a barrel before closing at a record 112.66 dollars, a gain of 1.08 dollars.
Both futures contracts had hit record highs Tuesday during trading and at the close as the market worried about tight supplies.
Those concerns were brought to the boil Wednesday by the weekly report from the US Department of Energy (DoE) that showed US energy stockpiles tumbled in the week ending April 11.US crude inventories slumped by 2.3 million barrels last week compared with analysts’ consensus forecast for a drop of 1.8 million.
US crude stocks now stand at 313.7 million barrels, in the lower half of the average range for this time of year, the department said.”The crude import data showed little sign of recovering after last week’s steep decline,” said Eric Wittenauer, an analyst at AG Edwards.
The DoE said that gasoline stocks fell by 5.5 million barrels, considerably more than market expectations for a fall of 1.8 million barrels, while distillate stocks such as heating fuel and diesel rose by 100,000 barrels, against predictions for a 1.5 million barrel decline.
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