LONDON, May 19: The price of crude oil came close to reaching a new record high on Monday as the market shrugged off higher output from Saudi Arabia, traders said.

New York crude hit as high as $127.77 a barrel, just off its all-time peak of $127.82, reached last Friday. New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, later stood at $127.28 a barrel, up 99 cents.

London’s Brent crude contract for June rose 58 cents to $125.57 a barrel on Monday after spiking to a record summit of $126.34 last Friday.

“We continue to see record highs posted on a daily basis as the bull-run continues,” MF Global senior energy broker Rob Laughlin said on Monday. “It feels as though we’re likely to see more of the same.”

Amid rocketing prices, Saudi Arabia has boosted oil output by 300,000 barrels per day to meet demand and compensate for lower output from other producers, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said on Friday.

However US President George W. Bush said the hike would not solve American energy problems. Soaring prices of crude oil and petrol are adding inflationary pressures to an already weakening US economy.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest producer of crude, said that by June it would be producing 9.45 million barrels of oil per day.

Nuaimi reiterated Opec’s long-standing view that global oil supply was balanced with demand.

Last week, Opec trimmed its 2008 estimate of world oil demand growth, citing higher prices and slower economic momentum in major industrialised countries including the United States.—AFP