June 20, 2005 3:00 PM, EDT

Crude Oil Tops $59 a Barrel in Setting New Record

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rude oil prices soared to more than $59 a barrel for the first time ever, news services reported.

Light sweet crude oil futures closed at $59.37 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercaneile Exchange, up 90 cents from Friday’s record, Bloomberg reported. They had hit an intraday high of $59.52, a new record, the Associated Press reported.

Some of the trading boosts were due to the August delivery contract coming in as the July delivery contract ended Monday, news reports said.

Bloomberg also reported that heating-oil futures rose for a third day Monday, on concerns that demand later this year may outstrip supply.

Heating oil and diesel are both distillate fuels and their prices often parallel each other.

Oil has averaged $51 a barrel this year, compared with $37 a year ago. Rising prices have not slowed consumption, which is on track to grow by more than 2% this year, the same as last year, Bloomberg said.

efore the recent spikes the previous record was $58.28, set April 4. That was followed April 11 by record retail diesel and gasoline prices of $2.316 and $2.28 a gallon, respectively.

The Department of Energy released its weekly diesel and gasoline retail price survey Monday afternoon.

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