LONDON, Aug 3 (AFP) - Oil prices shot to fresh record high levels on Tuesday on terrorism fears and a warning from OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro that the cartel could not immediately increase crude supplies.
London`s Brent North Sea crude oil for September delivery rose 33 cents to 40.31 dollars per barrel in opening deals.
The contract rose to as high as 40.45 dollars per barrel in electronic trading, the highest level since October 1990 when it reached 40.95 dollars in the wake of Iraq`s invasion of Kuwait.
New York`s reference contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, reached a new historic peak of 44.24 dollars per barrel in electronic deals.
It later stood up 16 cents at 43.98 dollars per barrel.
Commerzbank analyst Jon Rigby said a number of supply-driven factors were behind the fresh rises.
"There is this terror alert in the US, which highlights the amount of political risk in the oil price. The fear of terrorism will always push the oil price up, it is just the nature of this thing," he said.
"There is also the statement from the president of OPEC quoting the Saudis saying that they is not much spare capacity left. It confirms that there is not a huge amount of spare capacity left in the system, which is true," he added.
OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Tuesday that the cartel needs time to increase supply to offset soaring oil prices.
"We can`t increase supply at this moment. Yesterday (Saudi Arabian Oil Minister) Ali al-Nuaimi said they could but they need time," Yusgiantoro said.
The United States has meanwhile alerted the public over possible al-Qaeda attacks on key financial centres in the United States.
And in Iraq a major attack on the main pipeline connecting the oil fields of Kirkuk with the Turkish port of Ceyhan halted limited exports through northern Iraq, a Northern Oil company official said.