Oil prices climbed above $61 a barrel to a three-week high today after the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd and as US refinery outages stoked concerns about suppl. US light, sweet crude rose $1.03 to $61.60 a barrel.
The price has climbed over 40% this year and is just under a dollar below the record high of $62.10 hit on July 7.
King Fahd died in hospital on Monday and will be succeeded by Crown Prince Abdullah, his half-brother who has been the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995.
Abdullah is expected to adhere to Saudi Arabia's long-standing oil policy aimed at ensuring global markets are well supplied, a leading Saudi diplomat said.
'I cannot imagine that there will be any particular change,' the kingdom's next ambassador to the US and outgoing ambassador to Britain, Prince Turki al-Faisal, told reporters.
A spate of refinery problems in the US also resurrected concerns about meeting strong fuel demand. Exxon Mobil added to the anxiety at the weekend as it shut down its 235,000 barrels per day Joliet refinery in Illinois. BP also shut down a petrol-producing unit at the weekend at its giant Texas City refinery - the third largest in the US - for maintenance.
