LONDON (AFP) - World oil prices sprinted up to new one-month high points as traders showed alarm at a steep fall in US crude oil inventories in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.
The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November soared by 1.26 dollars to 44.65 dollars per barrel in late trading here.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light sweet crude for November delivery surged 1.49 dollars to 48.25 dollars, climbing towards an all-time peak of 49.40 dollars reached last month.
Prudential Bache broker Christopher Bellew said: "It looked like people had anticipated the figures and that prices were not going to go up, but they did. It is definitely a reaction to the statistics. It is encouraging fund buying."
US oil inventories tumbled to their lowest levels since February last week in the wake of the hurricane, government and industry figures showed.
The US Department of Energy said crude reserves fell by 9.1 million barrels in the week to September 17 to 269.5 million barrels, the lowest levels since February 6.
The American Petroleum Institute said its survey showed an even steeper drop of 12.9 million barrels to 266.7 million.
Inventories of gasoline and distillates, which include heating oil, also showed sharp declines, according to the surveys.
"The market was geared to receive deep crude stock falls, given all the disruption from hurricane Ivan last week -- although not quite so deep," said Peter Hills, analyst at energy information provider ICIS-LOR.
Production in the Gulf of Mexico was slashed last week because of Hurricane Ivan, while the biggest US oil import terminal in Louisiana stopped unloading tankers and coastal refineries suspended operations.
The previous week the US Energy Department had already reported a fall of 7.1 million barrels in US crude oil inventories due to bad weather.
Traders were also watching tropical storm Jeanne's path after it caused devastation in Haiti, and as it travelled towards the Gulf coast.
Another factor supporting prices was the ongoing financial crisis at Russia energy giant Yukos, which faces multi-billion dollar tax demands from the Moscow authorities.
Russia's nature ministry may next week strip the embattled Yukos oil giant's chief production subsidiary of licenses, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
The ministry may next week consider revoking the licenses from Yuganskneftegaz, which accounts for 60 percent of Yukos's oil output and which is due to be auctioned to meet tax demands the besieged Yukos is unable to pay.
The licenses could be revoked because Yukos has delayed payments on current taxes, including an extraction tax, Yukos's spokesman Alexander Shadrin was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.