Oil On The Verge?

Are world oil prices about to repeat last year’s surge to record levels?

It was a year ago that world prices topped the $US60 a mark and then marked time for a while before being driven to record levels of more than $US78 a barrel by the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon in early August.

On Friday West Texas Intermediate crude in New York finished higher at just over $US62 a barrel and apart from some murmurings around Iran and the usual instability in Iraq, the usual flashpoints (and North Korea has gone silent as well) seem to be cool.

But there are a couple of very important factors in the supply-demand balance which suggest the oil market isn’t travelling well.

ACNNewswire