Oil prices set a new record in New York Tuesday, as a barrel of crude went up 2.03 U.S. dollars during the day and traded for 113.79 U.S. dollars by the closure time, Itar-Tass reports.
Analysts say the prices were propelled by investors' fears in connection with a possible shortage of supplies of oil to the international market.
In many ways, these fears are linked to a report by the International Energy Agency /IEA/, the experts of which claim, among other things, that Russian oil companies reduced the output of oil in the first quarter of 2008, the first time over the past ten years.
The report indicated that Russian companies produced about 10 million barrels of oil a day on the average from January through March, which is 1% less than in the first quarter of 2007.
Simultaneously, an increase of prices for automobile fuel was registered in the U.S. itself. By the closure of market trading in New York, a gallon of gasoline climbed to a record point of 2.881 U.S. dollars.