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NEW YORK: World oil prices blazed over a record 146 dollars a barrel on Thursday in the face of falling US oil reserves, geopolitical tensions and a weak dollar, traders said.
Russian energy giant Gazprom meanwhile forecast that soaring oil prices would "very soon" hit 250 dollars a barrel.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, leapt to an all-time pinnacle of 145.85 dollars before a record close at 145.29 dollars, marking a gain of 1.72 dollars from a day earlier.
In London, Brent North Sea oil for August delivery surged to a lifetime peak of 146.69 dollars a barrel after breaching 146 dollars for the first time in earlier trading.
The contract subsequently settled up 1.82 dollars at 146.08 dollars,
"Prices rose to set new all-time highs ... supported by a decline in US crude oil inventories," said Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish.
Oil prices, which have doubled in value over the past year, were driven higher by news earlier this week that American crude stockpiles fell by 2.0 million barrels to stand at 299.8 million barrels in the week ended June 27.
The US government's Energy Information Administration had also revealed on Wednesday that crude inventories were 15.3 percent lower than at the same period a year ago.
"It was the first time inventory fell below the psychologically critical 300-million-barrel threshold since January," said PetroMatrix analyst Olivier Jakob.
The latest record-breaking price surge also came after Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said that Iran would react fiercely to any military attack against the oil exporter.
The OPEC oil exporting group said on Thursday that it would be difficult to replace the crude output of Iran should the country face attack.
"If something happened in Iran, it is difficult to replace (Iran's output of) 4.1 or 4.2 million barrels a day," OPEC secretary general Abdallah el-Badri told the daily newsletter of the World Petroleum Congress in Madrid.
Speculation has mounted that Israel might be planning a military strike against Iran's nuclear sites.
Iran has been locked in a five-year standoff with the West over its nuclear programme. Iran claims it is for generating electricity while Western powers fear the development of nuclear weapons.
The oil market also found key support from the struggling US currency, which makes dollar-priced commodities like oil cheaper for foreign buyers and tends to encourage demand, analysts said.
"We expect that the price of oil will reach 250 dollars per barrel very soon," Gazprom chief executive, Alexei Miller, told journalists Thursday on a visit to energy-rich Azerbaijan.
Miller also said he expected Russia's oil production to level off in the next few years.
Analysts say one of the reasons for higher oil prices is that production is failing to catch up with growing global demand.
Russia is the world's second-biggest producer and exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia. - AFP/de
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