LONDON, Aug 11: World oil prices rocketed to historic peaks as high as $66 on Thursday, owing to huge speculative buying, sky-high global demand and continued refinery outages in the United States, analysts said.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) meanwhile singled out low spare production capacity in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) as a major factor behind soaring prices.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, hit a record $66 per barrel, and has now risen almost $3.70 in less than a week. It later stood at $65.55, up 65 cents on Wednesday’s close.

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in September meanwhile soared to a new record high of $65.66 per barrel, before trading at $65 — a rise of $1.01.

“The market is just continuing to try and pass new highs all the time, Global Insight analyst Simon Wardell said.

“It’s looking for a level of prices that would hamper demand, but we haven’t reached it yet, so prices are going to continue to rise.”

He added: “The petrol and gasoline situation in the US is probably the most worrying factor at the moment, and it looks like it could be an ongoing problem because a shortage of refining capacity is not something that can be solved very quickly.”

Crude futures are about 42 per cent higher than a year ago in New York, while Brent crude is up some 50 per cent over the same period.

“The market remains a bullish market in the medium term, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t see prices go through $70 quite comfortably,” a trader with a European brokerage firm said.

The IEA meanwhile held steady its forecast for growth of overall demand at 1.60 million barrels per day this year and 1.78 million barrels next year, allowing for an easing of apparent demand for oil in China and a small upward adjustment for US demand.

“What’s driving prices is the inventory report that came out on Wednesday showing gasoline stocks drawdown and also continued problems with refinery outages in the US and the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East,” said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with US energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.—AFP