Oil prices rose for a third day today amid rising tension in the Mideast and concerns over Iran being referred back to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear programme.
Light sweet crude for August delivery rose 39 cents to $75.34 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange - not far from the intraday record of $75.78 a barrel reached last Friday.
Heating oil futures increased 1.01 cents to $2.0285 per gallon, natural gas futures fell slightly to $5.787 per 1,000 cubic feet, and gasoline futures rose 5.6 cents to $2.2615 a gallon.
World powers sent Iran back to the UN Security Council yesterday after nuclear talks failed to yield agreements, stirring concerns about how Opec's number 2 supplier might respond.
Also, yesterday's weekly US government report showed a sharp decline last week in domestic crude oil inventories.
In its weekly petroleum report, the Energy Department said commercially available crude oil stocks shrank by six million barrels to 335.3 million barrels. Crude supplies are still 2 per cent higher than last year.
AP