Oil zooms to $105.96 a barrel; gold nears $1,000 an ounce

06 March 2008

Mumbai: Crude oil prices rose to a fresh peak near $106 helped by a weak dollar and supply worries arising from OPEC's decision to leave production unchanged.

COMEX futures in New York rose to around $995 an ounce, and Tokyo's platinum futures hit a new peak before ending lower on profit taking.

US light crude for April delivery, which hit $105.96 a barrel, was trading around $1.05 higher at $105.57 in late morning trade.

London Brent crude set a new record of $102.95 and was trading 84 cents higher at $102.48 later.

The US, which saw its crude and product stocks fall 4.5 million barrels against the average seasonal drop of 3.3 million barrels, made a call to OPEC to hike production to tame prices.

OPEC, however, decided to leave its output unchanged. The oil producer group also decided to meet next in September and could confer informally at a conference between consumers and producers in Rome on April 20-22.