LONDON (AFP) - World oil prices went back above 54 dollars on fears over supply shortages amid soaring demand ahead of the northern hemisphere's winter, as traders awaited estimates of US crude inventories.
The price of reference light sweet crude for delivery in November rose 44 cents to 54.08 dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
New York's main oil contract had jumped by 1.13 dollars on Wednesday to finish at 53.64 dollars a barrel, off a record 54.45 dollars reached Tuesday.
In London Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery climbed 30 cents to 50.35 dollars in early deals on Thursday. It had hit a record 51.50 dollars a barrel on Tuesday amid ongoing strike action in major oil producers Nigeria and Norway.
OPEC's president meanwhile predicted that oil prices would continue to rise in the next two weeks on the back of a surge in demand.
"I believe that oil prices will continue to rise until the end of this month because demand is getting stronger," Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's energy minister, told reporters in Jakarta.
Markets were keenly awaiting the US Energy Department's weekly estimate of US commercial oil inventories following recent supply problems in the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Ivan which continue to affect output.
The data was being published one day later than usual owing to Columbus Day on Monday.
"Today the market will be watching official US stocks data," analysts at the Sucden brokerage said. "Winter fuel is in short supply around the globe, with European distillate stocks 3.4-percent below last year and kerosene supplies in Japan down 20 percent from 2003," they added in a note to clients.
Traders in the United States were widely anticipating a weekly increase in crude oil stocks of between 1.0 million and 1.5 million barrels, but a fall in gasoline of about 1.0 million barrels and a drop in distillates, including heating oil, of 1.0 million barrels also.
"If you look at heating oil stocks, they are at low levels," said Esa Ramasamy, an Singapore-based analyst at energy information company Platts.
"There's a lot of uncertainty. This is causing a lot of bullishness in the marketplace," he added.
Meanwhile in Nigeria, labour leaders and opposition activists were expected to suspend a nationwide general strike, four days after bringing the country to a virtual standstill in a protest over rising fuel prices.
"The strike is still on," said Owei Lakemfa, chief spokesman for the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
"But the NLC and civil society groups will meet this afternoon to review the next stage of the protest. The strike is likely to be suspended today and to resume after two weeks."
Nigeria, the world's sixth largest exporter of crude, exports around 2.5 million barrels per day but the strike has not affected supplies so far, according to unions and oil giants based in the African country.
World oil prices have more than doubled from about 20 dollars a barrel in New York at the start of 2002, surging by about 65 percent since the start of this year.
Adjusted for inflation, however, they remain far below the levels reached in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution when prices surged to upwards of 80 dollars a barrel in today's money.