NEW YORK - New York crude oil prices rocketed to record highs Monday closing at 86.13 dollars a barrel amid mounting tensions between Turkey's government and Kurdish terrorists in northern Iraq.
The leading New York oil contract soared 2.44 dollars from Friday after Turkey's army said as the weekend that it had shelled Iraqi territory after PKK terrorists attacked a military outpost with rockets and gunfire from across the border.
World oil prices were already hovering at record highs before concerns spiked about a potential conflict affecting Turkey's border with Iraq. Many of Iraq's largest oil fields are located in the north of the country.
London oil prices also surged amid the concerns, sending a key oil contract through the 82-dollar-a-barrel threshold for the first time.
maj/jjc/rl
10/15/2007 19:15 GMT