Oil Hits Record Highs With $60 a Barrel Now in Sight

Global crude prices surged to unprecedented levels on 22 October 2004, with New York's December light sweet crude settling at $55.17 a barrel after peaking at $55.50. Brent North Sea oil closed at a record $51.22. Analysts at Refco described the market as still trending upward, with $60 per barrel looking increasingly plausible.

Anxiety over lean US energy inventories and robust Chinese consumption drove the rally. Gulf of Mexico hurricane damage kept roughly a quarter of daily domestic output offline. Heating oil and gasoline contracts also reached historic highs, stoking concern ahead of a potentially harsh winter.

Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke acknowledged the price spike as a considerable blow to the US economy, noting that crude had cost around $30 a barrel just one year earlier.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.