April 7, 2006	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1427

LONDON, April 6: Oil prices climbed briefly above 68 dollars per barrel in London on Thursday, within striking distance of their record level last year, amid concerns about falling US gasoline supplies and rising tensions in major crude exporters Nigeria and Iran, dealers said.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery reached as high as $68.24 per barrel in electronic trade. That was close to its record high of $68.89 reached on August 30, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina devastated energy facilities on the US Gulf Coast.

By early evening in London on Thursday, the price of Brent was trading at $67.60, up 50 cents from Wednesday’s close.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, meanwhile rose 33 cents to $67.40 per barrel in pit trading.

Light sweet crude had struck a historic peak at $70.85 per barrel on August 30 last year.

Prices were extending gains witnessed on Wednesday after the US Department of Energy revealed that stockpiles of gasoline or petrol dived by 4.4 million barrels to 211.8 million barrels in the week to March 31.

The fall was far more than the 1.4 million barrels expected by analysts.

“The failure to rebuild gasoline stocks in the month of April could result in drastic regional supply shortages in the coming months, and that concern is certainly being expressed in rising prices,” Fimat analyst John Kilduff said.

“The 70.85-dollar high of last August 30 seemed like an anomaly after last year’s storms. Now the confluence of events that constitutes the wall of worries that the market is climbing will shortly make that price a natural progression,” he added.

Stocks of gasoline are shifting into focus before the start of the so-called US driving season beginning in May, when many Americans take to their automobiles for holidays.

Analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said that the news on Wednesday “compounded worries that a low level of gasoline inventories, coupled with changing gasoline specifications may create shortages in some areas of the US”.—AFP