by Perrine Faye
LONDON, Aug 20 (AFP) - World oil prices hit new records Friday, racing towards the symbolic 50-dollar mark as traders showed alarm over attacks on oil infrastructure in Iraq, where fighting raged between militia and US forces.
New York's benchmark light sweet crude for delivery in September rose 57 cents in pre-opening electronic trading to a new record of 49.27 dollars.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for October delivery climbed 82 cents to a new all-time peak of 45.15 dollars in early afternoon deals.
Traders were unnerved by an attack on a local oil pipeline in northern Iraq and the torching of the offices and warehouses of the South Oil Company.
Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr ordered his Mehdi Army to continue their war against US and Iraqi forces after the militia besieged in a holy shrine were pounded by the heaviest bombardment yet in their 16-day standoff.
Traders said it was a question of when, not if, prices broke through the symbolic 50-dollar threshold.
"It is quite possible prices will push to 50 dollars today," said Prudential Bache dealer Tony Machacek.
"Any sign that (Iraqi) insurgents are trying to disrupt supplies will push prices even higher," he added.
Investec analyst Bruce Evers said there was a barrage of news headlines keeping prices higher. The primary concerns are "events in Iraq, and the Venezuelan opposition checking up on the election," he said.
"There is talk of oil prices at 50 dollars a barrel, but this is just a round number. Technically it could go higher still," he said.
"If there is a big supply problem and Iraq and Venezuelan oil came off the market, oil at 70 dollars is entirely conceivable," he added.
Venezuelan electoral authorities Thursday conducted a random audit of the recent referendum that confirmed President Hugo Chavez's mandate, but the opposition rejected the probe and insisted the vote was a fraud.
In Iraq, a local pipeline linking the main northern Iraqi oilfields of Kirkuk to the Baiji refinery was damaged when a makeshift bomb exploded Friday, hampering oil distribution, a security source said.
Meanwhile, in the main southern city of Basra, the British military said the number of security guards around key oil infrastructure had been stepped up after the Mehdi Army of radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr torched the offices and warehouses of the South Oil Company -- attacks which have contributed to the halving of Iraqi crude exports.
"Iraq has been exporting at the south at about half the rate they're capable of for about the last 11 days," said Paul Horsnell, head of energy research at Barclays Capital.
"So they only appear to be exporting at the moment about a million barrels a day. This is a genuine reduction in supply."
But he said Iraq was only one factor behind the price spike.
"Really what's driving the oil price is the perception of a lack of spare capacity," Horsnell said.
"Then every potential real supply shock has a large and magnified impact.
We've had a thumping great demand shock... The amount of spare capacity in the world system has run down to a very thin level," he added.
The market ignored comments from OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who said the cartel would do its best to help to cool prices.
"I am very concerned with the continuing rise of oil prices but we will do (our) best at the September OPEC meeting," Yusgiantoro told reporters in Jakarta.
He said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' "crisis study team" was scheduled to present a report when the organisation met with non-affiliated oil-producing countries on September 16 and 17.
"We hope for a significant solution to solve the rising oil prices," Yusgiantoro said.