Reply #4: Oil nears record on U.S. refinery snags [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://today.reuters.com/investing/FinanceArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-08-05T114633Z_01_SP25321_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-MARKETS-OIL-DC.XML

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil climbed on Friday to within 50 cents of its all-time high as U.S. refinery outages hampered efforts to meet strong demand growth in the world's biggest consumer.

U.S. light sweet crude rose 66 cents to $62.04 a barrel, 46 cents below the record high hit on Wednesday at $62.50 a barrel.

London Brent crude gained 76 cents to $60.88 a barrel, 38 cents off the record-high of $61.26.

"It's no secret that refineries are the problem. There wouldn't be a problem if there was any slack in the system," said Tony Nunan, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp.'s international energy business in Tokyo.

A half-dozen refineries in the United States have been forced into unplanned shutdowns since late July and some have had to delay planned restarts, leaving the market on edge after U.S. gasoline stocks fell a sharp 4 million barrels last week.

Inventories have fallen into the lower half of their seasonal average, while demand is running 1.1 percent stronger than last year with a month left in the summer season.

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