Off the AP wire:
Oil prices briefly rose to new heights Wednesday in a rally traders attributed to concerns about refinery snags in the U.S. and rising global demand.Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics
Also in the mix was a fresh weekly report from the U.S. Department of Energy that showed domestic inventories of crude oil grew slightly last week, while the commercial supply of gasoline fell sharply.
Light sweet crude for September delivery rose 31 cents to $62.20 a barrel Wednesday morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had climbed as high as $62.50 a barrel, surpassing the previous intraday high of $62.30, set Tuesday.
The contract settled at $61.89 a barrel on Tuesday in New York, the highest closing price since trading began on the Nymex in 1983. On an inflation-adjusted basis, that is still below the all-time high set in 1981. Oil is now around 40 percent more expensive than a year ago.
In London, Brent crude for September delivery on the International Petroleum Exchange rose 51 cents to $61.13 a barrel.
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