Oil prices approach record heights

World oil prices spiked on Tuesday close to record high points as supply concerns were stoked by a recent fire at a Finnish refinery and comments from the OPEC cartel, traders said.New York's main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, touched 109.64 dollars per barrel early Tuesday. The contract later stood at 108.65 dollars, down 43 cents from the close on Monday.New York crude had forged a historic peak of 111.80 dollars on March 17 owing to a weak dollar, tightening global supplies and choppy world financial markets. London's Brent North Sea crude for May dropped 48 cents to 106.66 dollars after earlier touching 107.78 dollars. That was close to a record high 108.02 reached in March.Oil prices were "still supported by renewed supply concerns after a fire at a Finnish refinery last Friday," said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov on Tuesday. Prices surged higher after the fire at a 200,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Porvoo, Finland, he added.The market also found solid support after oil exporters in the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries rejected Western calls to increase output and ease supply pressures. Meanwhile Kryuchenkov said of the Finnish fire: "The refinery is owned by Neste Oil, with the (Finnish) energy firm saying that repairs on a diesel unit could continue well into the next month, following a fire blaze on Friday."The news has jangled the market because traders are focused on motor fuel supplies-refined from crude oil-ahead of the peak demand US driving season, starting in May, when many Americans hit the roads for their holidays.Traders are keenly awaiting Wednesday's weekly government report for a fresh reading on the state of US gasoline (petrol) inventories.On Monday, prices jumped higher as investment demand was partly driven by comments from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps 40 percent of world oil supplies.Over the weekend, the OPEC secretary general, Abdullah al-Badri, rejected calls for an increase in the cartel's crude output, saying non-fundamental factors were to blame for current high prices."At the moment there is enough oil in the market and no need to change OPEC's output," he said in Tehran late Saturday.The OPEC cartel defiantly maintained its output at 29.67 million barrels per day at its last meeting in March.Kryuchenkov added on Tuesday: "The group remains resilient to pleas from top consuming nations, with OPEC Secretary General Abdulla al-Badri reiterating the group's view that the market is well supplied, once again blaming the weaker dollar, geopolitical tensions and lower refining capacities for driving prices higher."US President George W. Bush has called on OPEC and its kingpin Saudi Arabia to hike output in response to the continued strength in prices. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080408122208.k6739nrw&show_article=1

As in the days of Noah....