Oil Prices Test Record High
Updated from 1:46 p.m. EST
Crude oil came near a new intraday record high Wednesday after the release of mixed government inventory data, only to close slightly higher.
In volatile trading, the April futures contract ended 18 cents higher at $54.77 a barrel on the Nymex, having hit $55.65 earlier. The previous intraday high was $55.67, set last October.
Traders say it is just a matter of time before the benchmark U.S. crude surpasses its record closing high of $55.17, also set in October.
Worries about heating oil supplies amid a prolonged bout of unseasonably cold late-winter weather as well as questions about OPEC's production plans ahead of its regular meeting March 16 have stoked prices.
U.S. data out this morning showed a larger-than-expected decline in distillates, which include heating oil. Gasoline stocks declined unexpectedly. Crude oil inventories, however, came in well above consensus.
Prices have risen more than 10% in the past two weeks, breaking $50 a barrel for the first time since last October, when prices routinely hit record highs.
The latest surge comes amid daily speculation about whether OPEC plans to keep production at its current official level of 24 million barrels a day.The cartel cut production by a million barrels a day, effective Jan. 1, having boosted production three times by a total of 2.5 million barrels a day in the second half of last year as prices marched irrevocably higher.
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