Oil soars past $145 for first time
Brent North Sea crude for August delivery climbed $1.01 to $145.27 a barrel from its record close of $144.26 in London yesterday, after breaking $144 for the first time.
New York's benchmark contract, light sweet crude for August delivery, hit an intra-day record price of $144.57.
By afternoon,the contract was 66 cents higher at $144.23 against a record close of $143.57 in the US yesterday.
The latest surge followed a warning from Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari that his country, a key crude producer, would react fiercely to any attack against it.
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"Iran, if here were any kind of activity of any sort, is not going to be quiet and would react fiercely," he told reporters on the sidelines of the World Petrolum Congress in Madrid.
He said oil prices, which have been driven to record levels partly because of fears about the loss of Iran's oil output, would rise radically if Israel or the United States launched a military trike.
"That's the kind of talk that kind of juices the market," said Jason Feer, vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, for energy market analysts Argus Media Ltd in Singapore.
Western powers and Iran have been engaged in long-running efforts to resolve a stalemate over Iran's nuclear enrichment programme, which the West fears could be used to make an atomic bomb.
Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.