NEW YORK (AFP) - World oil prices surged as US heating oil stockpiles were shown falling for the eighth straight week with the northern hemisphere winter closing in.
New York's benchmark contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, rose 1.49 dollars to close at 48.86 dollars a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for December leapt 1.04 dollars to 44.75 dollars in London.
"Even if the market does not really fear that there might not be enough heating oil for the winter, they think the supply will be very limited," said Wachovia analyst Jason Schenker.
"We have had eight consecutive weeks of drought in heating oil," he added.
"It is very bullish."
The US Department of Energy said crude oil inventories increased by 1.8 million barrels to 291.5 million in the week to November 5, about average for this point of the season.
But distillates -- mostly heating oil and diesel -- fell 100,000 barrels to 115.6 million, the eighth consecutive drop.
Heating oil inventories alone eased 100,000 barrels to 48.4 million barrels while diesel stocks were flat at 65.2 million.
"Our view is that the figures are positive for prices," said Societe Generale analyst Frederic Lasserre in Paris.
"They justify a rise in prices, notably because there were strong expectations of rises across the stocks, in both crude and refined products. In fact, the rise in crude was smaller than expected and we had falls in product inventories when we were looking for rises.
"That doesn't justify a surge in prices but should probably halt temporarily the downward movement that we have seen over the past two weeks," he said.
Before Wednesday's rebound, New York light sweet crude had tumbled by about 14 percent over two weeks, and Brent by 15 percent as supplies recovered from hurricane-induced losses in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil prices are still likely to soften in the coming months amid strong output from OPEC and adequate stocks of crude in key developed countries, the International Energy Agency said.
The Paris-based IEA said in its monthly report for November that its forecast for global oil demand was roughly unchanged at 82.4 million barrels a day in 2004 and 83.8 million barrels a day in 2005.
Demand growth is set to slow from a revised figure of 2.64 million barrels a day in 2004 to 1.44 million barrels a day next year.
"Barring any major unforeseen developments, oil markets should continue to ease heading into and out of the (northern hemisphere's) winter," the report said.

11/10/2004 - 21:19 GMT - AFP