Crude Oil Hits a New Record, Topping $64 a Barrel

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rude oil prices hit a new record in overnight trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising to $64.27 a barrel, the first time prices have topped $64, Bloomberg reported.

Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures slipped back to close at $63.07, down 87 cents from Monday's record closing price.

Concerns had abated over security fears in Saudi Arabia after alleged terrorist threats against the U.S. embassy there helped push prices higher on Monday, Bloomberg said.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that U.S. refinery outages this year have raised concerns about capacity output, which has also helped push the price of crude higher.

In all there have been about a dozen refineries affected by problems, though estimating how much that will affect output was difficult to estimate, the Journal said.

The Department of Energy reported Monday that the average U.S. gasoline retail price was a record $2.368 a gallon. Diesel’s average was $2.407, just 0.1 cent off the all-time high, set July 11.

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