NEW YORK - Oil futures shot to a new record closing price Wednesday of 56.46 dollars a barrel as traders poured in more cash following news of a bigger-than-expected drawdown in US gasoline supplies.
The April futures price earlier in the session hit an all-time record of 56.60 dollars a barrel.
The surge in prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange broke the record set last October of 55.67 dollars a barrel.
The rally began Wednesday after the Energy Department released its data on US inventory levels.
It said US crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels for the week ended March 11. However, gasoline supplies dropped by 2.9 million barrels, and distillate stocks fell by 1.9 million barrels.
"Unbelievable," said Phil Flynn at Alaron Trading about the new record highs.
"We had a combination of things: the big drop in gasoline inventories caught the market by surprise, plus the fact that China talked yesterday about building some strategic petroleum reserves using their forex reserves."
This development was "very bullish" for oil prices, he said.
03/16/2005 20:06 GMT