LONDON, Sept 27: World oil prices raced to new record high levels close to $50 a barrel on Monday as unrest in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia alarmed traders already anxious about low oil inventories.

In New York the price of light sweet crude for November delivery climbed to an all-time high point of $49.74 per barrel in electronic trading, the highest level since oil began trading on the New York market in 1983.

The contract smashed through the previous record peak of $49.40 seen on August 20. Prices rose 52 cents to $49.40 a barrel in early deals. In London the price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November jumped 95 cents to hit a record peak of $46.28, the highest level since the London market began trading oil in 1980.

Prices climbed 57 cents to $45.90 in late trading. Adjusted for inflation, world oil prices remain far below the levels reached in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution when prices surged to about $80 a barrel in today's money. But prices have more than doubled from about $20 a barrel in New York at the start of 2002, surging by about 50 per cent since the start of this year. -AFP