Oil Surges to Top $106 a Barrel
Oil jumped to its highest closing price in two-and-a-half years over $106 a barrel, on concern that the Libyan conflict will prolong production cuts, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures rose $2.45 to finish the day — the last day of the year’s first quarter — at $106.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
It was the highest settlement price since Sept. 26, 2008, and oil has jumped 17% from January through March, the most for a quarter since mid-2009, Bloomberg said.
Prices jumped 10% in March alone, the seventh straight monthly gain, marking the longest consecutive number of increases since Nymex contract trading began in 1983.
The prices rose after Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi retook control of the oil port of Ras Lanuf and his troops were shelling Brega, another Libyan energy hub, as fighting raged in that country between government troops and rebels.
Oil production in Libya, the seventh-largest producing member of OPEC, plunged 72% in March to a 49-year low, Bloomberg reported.
Diesel and gasoline prices have, with one and two exceptions respectively, risen every week since the end of November, with diesel’s national average price now approaching $4 a gallon.
