World oil prices struck a fresh intraday record of 123.87 dollars a barrel in Asian hours on Thursday, despite a larger-than-expected rise in US energy stocks.
The record reached by New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, just slightly exceeded the old intraday high of 123.80 dollars reached on Wednesday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract later traded 11 cents higher at 123.64 dollars a barrel in Asia from its record close of 123.53 dollars in New York.
Brent North Sea crude for June delivery was 24 cents higher at 122.56 dollars a barrel.
In London on Wednesday the contract touched an all-time peak of 122.70 dollars, before settling 2.01 dollars at 122.32 dollars.
Prices continued to rise despite a weekly survey by the US government showing that the country's crude stocks rose by 5.7 million barrels to 325.6 million barrels for the week ended May 2.
Copyright 2008, by
AFP
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