Oil prices reach 11-month high

NEW YORK – Oil prices surpassed $76 a barrel Monday to reach their highest level in nearly a year after a global energy watchdog warned of a looming oil and natural gas supply shortage.

August Brent crude rose 65 cents to $76.27 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London, its highest point since August 2006.


The Paris-based International Energy Agency, an adviser to 26 industrialized countries, reported that higher-than-expected demand would persist to 2012 amid tightening supplies.

Escalating global growth will draw on spare capacity from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and non-OPEC countries will fail to pick up the slack, the IEA said in its oil market report.

OPEC ministers, however, dispute that supply shortages are driving up prices, blaming refinery problems and geopolitical unrest.

AP