NEW YORK, Oct 20 (AFP) - Global oil prices boomed Wednesday as traders feared a supply crunch in the American winter after the fifth straight weekly decline in US heating oil stocks.
New York's light sweet crude contract for delivery in November shot to a high of 55.20 dollars a barrel before closing at 54.92, up 1.63 dollars on the day and one cent shy of a record settlement.
Brent North Sea crude for Devember hit a high of 50.62 dollars and finished at 50.52 dollars, up 1.75 dollars.
"It is really the drought in distillated products that pushed prices higher," said Wachovia Securities analyst Jason Schenker.
"We should have a bullish winter."
Traders reacted with alarm to US Department of Energy report showing stocks of distillates -- mostly diesel and heating oil -- fell 1.9 million barrels to 119.0 million in the week to October 15.
Within that, heating oil inventories, in high demand in the northern hemisphere winter, slipped 500,000 barrels to 49.5 million.
"This is really going to keep this market quite well propped up," said Richard Slape, an analyst at stockbroker Seymour Pierce in London.
This time last year commercial stockpiles of distillate fuel in the United States stood at 131.6 million barrels, he said.
"So we are almost 10 percent below where we were this time last year, and of course winter is rapidly approaching.
"There is nothing in these numbers that would make you be a seller of oil right now," said Slape.
The US Department of Energy also said gasoline stocks dropped 700,000 barrels to 199.9 million, but crude oil inventories rose 1.2 million barrels from the previous week to 279.4 million barrels.
Inventories of distillates have dropped heavily following supply problems in the hurricane-battered Gulf of Mexico.
Prices are being supported by increasingly chilly winter weather forecasts by US meteorologists.
Slape said a 60-dollar price for the New York contract was a "distinct possibility."
"It's not that far away and we could be up there sooner rather than later if we have any trouble in the Middle East, or a threat of supply disruptions in places like Venezuela or Nigeria, combined with another week or two of falls in inventories in the US," he said.
Much would depend on how cold the winter was in the northern hemisphere and how much demand there is for heating oil, Slape said.
"I imagine, a bit like with gasoline earlier in the year, that we will muddle through, but it will result in some considerable volatility," he added.