Soaring energy costs continued to haunt world markets today after the price of crude oil surged to another new high above $60 a barrel.

Motorists were today facing further pain on the forecourt after crude oil prices rose to a new high of more than 59 US dollars a barrel.

CRUDE oil topped $57 a barrel in New York for the first time since April over concern refiners may struggle to meet a fourth-quarter peak in demand for winter fuels.

London oil traders famed for stripy blazers and frenzied hand signals took their final bow today as the high-tech era claimed another victim in the City.

Oil prices retreated from close to record highs today after OPEC agreed to raise production by 500,000 barrels a day.

THE Nymex Dublin experiment that started with such great hope in November 2004 collapsed because of a serious lack of oil trades through the centre.

OPEC warned today that oil prices, already hovering near US 50 a barrel, would remain high through the spring, even as the cartel decided to keep its production ceiling at 27 million barrels a day.

Oil prices surged above 49 US dollars a barrel today – their highest levels since the end of November – amid plunging temperatures in the US and fears of supply cuts.

OIL prices rose yesterday following Monday’s fall of nearly $3 in the face of rising US stockpiles and expected warmer winter weather.

Crude oil futures continued to plummet today on the belief that fuel supplies in the United States will be adequate to deal with its coming winter.

The world’s largest energy dealer is to open a trading floor in Dublin’s financial heartland, it emerged today.

Oil futures prices advanced to a new high yesterday as a strike began in Nigeria, Africa’s largest exporter of crude, exacerbating global supply concerns at a time of strong demand and reduced output in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf of Mexico.

Oil prices set a new record high today as production problems caused by Hurricane Ivan continued to weigh on the market.

Oil prices were hovering close to last week’s record high today after breaking through the $50 mark again.

OIL prices soared to new highs on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday as traders fretted over increasingly short supplies.

Opec members have split on whether their output should be increased in a bid to boost global supply that might cause oil prices to drop.

PETROL prices at the pumps are beginning to fall below 99.99 cents per litre as world oil prices fall.

CRUDE oil futures rose in New York yesterday after a blast damaged an oil pipeline in Iraq, renewing concerns that violence will disrupt exports from the Middle East’s fifth-biggest oil producer.

Crude futures rose to a new high near $49 a barrel as the threat of sabotage to Iraqi oil infrastructure loomed larger than promises from Baghdad to boost exports in coming days.

Production resumed at Iraq’s vast southern oil fields after authorities reached an accord with militant Shiites who had threatened to attack the country’s vital export pipelines for crude, an Iraqi oil official said.

Analysts have forecast that oil prices could rise to $50 a barrel and that OPEC will not be able to meet fourth quarter demand.

Another surge in oil prices and a sharp drop in consumer spending rattled US investors today, sending stocks lower and hitting the technology sector particularly hard.

Encouraging signals from OPEC that it would raise production had the immediate and desired effect of lowering record-high oil prices, but analysts were wondering whether the measure would prevent a worldwide crisis.

Security fears left foreign businesses reconsidering whether to stay in Saudi Arabia, while jittery world oil markets opened today with strong price increases in the first significant trading since a terror attack targeting Western oil workers left 22 people dead in the Saudi oil hub.

Government talks will be held in the UK today on the increasing rise in oil prices as the threat of a repeat of the 2000 fuel blockages looms.

Oil prices continued to rise today, edging even closer to the record high set in the lead-up to the last Gulf War.

THE price of oil neared a 14-year high of $40 per barrel yesterday, heightening fears that forecourt prices will rise in the coming weeks.

CRUDE oil in New York, which is headed for the highest average price in 20 years, rose on speculation that an Energy Department report today will show that inventories fell last week.

CRUDE oil in New York tumbled for the second straight session as mild northeast weather is expected to trim US fuel demand.

Defying expectations, Opec plans to cut its oil production target by 3.5%, Kuwait’s oil minister said today.

CRUDE oil fell for a fifth session on expectations that US inventories will increase even after production cuts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries take effect in June.

CRUDE oil rose for the third time in four sessions as war in Iraq and civil strife in Nigeria limit shipments from the countries, which normally produce about 6% of the world’s oil.

THE markets reacted as anticipated yesterday as uncertainty over the duration and, to a lesser extent, the outcome of the war on Iraq hit equities and the dollar, pushing gold, oil and the euro up.

CRUDE oil surged to a 12-year high for the second straight session as the US and Britain continued preparations to disarm Iraq

OIL prices fell yesterday from two-year highs set last week as international divisions widened over whether to wage war on Iraq.

OIL prices rose to a two-year high after Iraq said ‘no’ to United Nations peacekeeping troops in Iraq under a Franco-Germany strategy to avoid Gulf war II.

OPEC needs to compensate for a shortfall in oil exports from Venezuela but it shouldn’t change its output target of 23 million barrels a day, the group’s most influential oil minister said today.

The growing conflict in the Middle East could spark an increase in European petrol prices, an analyst has suggested.

The City’s watchdog today said it would leave ‘‘no stone unturned’’ in investigating whether terrorists profited from the attacks in the US.