LONDON, Sept 17: The price of New York oil climbed back on Monday towards its record high above $80 a barrel, which it reached last week on the back of tight supplies of crude in the United States.

New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October rose 37 cents to $79.47 per barrel.

It had struck a record high $80.36 in Friday deals, before closing lower on profit-taking.

In London on Monday, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery fell 43 cents to $76.65 per barrel.

New York crude touched all-time record highs on Thursday and Friday following the closure of several US refineries in the path of Hurricane Humberto, traders said.

It had first surged above $80 a barrel on Wednesday after news that US crude reserves dived lower last week, compounding concerns over tight global energy supplies despite Opec’s move to hike output earlier in the week.

The US Department of Energy revealed on Wednesday that US crude inventories fell by a sharper-than-expected 7.1 million barrels in the week to Friday, September 7. The drop was almost three times heavier than market expectations.

A decision on Tuesday by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to pump an extra 500,000 barrels of oil per day from November gave little relief to the tight market, analysts said.

The Centre for Global Energy Studies said on Monday in its latest monthly report that unless Opec “puts enough oil on to the market at prices that attract buyers the world will remain short of oil and prices will continue to rise in the short term.” Last week’s record-breaking run for the oil market meanwhile came despite an announcement by the International Energy Agency that it was lowering its predictions of global crude demand for this year and 2008 because of ongoing turbulence across financial markets.

The IEA, which acts as energy policy adviser to industrialised countries, reduced its demand forecast to 85.9 million barrels per day in 2007 and 88 million bpd in 2008, from its prediction last month of 86 and 88.2 million bpd, respectively. —AFP