LONDON, Aug 4: World oil prices gained more than a dollar on Thursday amid concerns about levels of gasoline, or petrol, supplies, traders said. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, climbed one dollar to $61.86 per barrel in early dealing.

On Wednesday, the contract hit a fresh historic record of $62.50, but it retreated by more than a dollar to close at $60.86 after a surprise jump in stockpiles of US crude oil. In London on Thursday, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in September rose $1.11 to $60.76. It reached a new high point of $61.26 on Wednesday.

“Gasoline is very strong, maybe there’s some fund buying in there and it has lifted the whole board,” one London trader said. Stocks of gasoline dropped by 4.0 million barrels to 205.2 million in the week ending July 29, the US Department of Energy (DoE) said on Wednesday.

Analysts had forecast a drop of 800,000. The DoE revealed also that crude inventories rose by 200,000 barrels to 318m barrels, while analysts had expected a drop of about 1.4 million barrels.

An analyst with Societe Generale, Deborah White, noted that “obviously there is no crude shortage”. Stockpiles of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, climbed 1.5 million barrels to 127.3m, below analysts’ expectations for a rise of 2.0 million.

Oil prices have been reaching record highs this week on fears of insufficient supplies of heating oil during the fourth quarter, when the northern hemisphere winter begins. Now there is concern also about supplies of gasoline, especially as summer vacations take hold in Europe and the United States.—AFP