Oil prices hit new high

Brent crude hit an eleven month high yesterday trading at $76.34 on continuing fears of tightness of supply.

Concerns that the North Sea maintenance schedule will impact the market were mirrored across the Atlantic with US traders fretting similarly about the ability of refiners to meet growing demand. In its Medium Term Oil Market Report the IEA echoed these sentiments with a revised report predicting oil demand would rise by 2.2% between 2007-12, up from a previous 2%.