The Political Inquirer

It’s all over the news today. Oil has already hit $96 dollars a barrel, a record in terms of dollar amounts. The Chinese market, in its effort to curb shortages, has ordered a rise on all of their fuel costs.

MyWay

SINGAPORE (AP) - The price of oil rose to a new record above $96 a barrel Thursday after a surprise drop in U.S. crude stockpiles raised concerns about supplies for coming winter demand. Other energy futures also gained.

It was the second week in a row the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a sharp and unexpected drop in oil inventories.

“The decline in U.S. crude oil inventories has been a key driver of oil prices,” said David Moore, commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose as high as $96.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midafternoon in Singapore before dropping back to $95.59 a barrel.

(AP) Graphic shows crude oil prices; 1c x 3 inches; 46.5 mm x 76.2 mm Full Image

Crude prices have reached inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on the how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $101 or more today.

“We are stepping into an unknown area. Nobody wants to sell (given the fear of a) further rise,” broker Ken Hasegawa of Fimat Japan told Dow Jones Newswires.

The December Nymex crude contract rose $4.15 Wednesday to $94.53 a barrel - the highest-ever settlement.

December Brent crude futures also surged to a new trading record of $91.63 a barrel Thursday on the ICE futures exchange in London, up $1 from the previous session, before retreating to $91.37.

In its weekly inventory report, the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said oil supplies fell by 3.9 million barrels last week. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected an increase of 100,000 barrels.