Oil Closes at Record $78.23 a Barrel
Crude oil rose to a record closing price of $78.23 a barrel Tuesday on speculation that OPEC’s agreement to boost production by 500,000 barrels a day will fall short of rising demand, Bloomberg reported.
Benchmark light sweet crude futures rose 74 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said. The price topped the previous closing-price record set on July 31.
In OPEC’s meeting in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, Saudi Arabia, the group’s largest producer, led the move to adopt the output boost which will make the cartel’s target 27.2 million barrels a day, Bloomberg reported.
Tuesday’s closing price was the highest since Nymex trading began in 1983. Prices are up 19% from a year ago, Bloomberg said.
Meanwhile the International Energy Agency, cut its forecast for global oil demand on lower estimates for U.S. economic growth, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
The IEA, an adviser to 26 industrialized nations, said global oil demand will be 88.02 million barrels a day next year, a decline from its forecast last month of 88.18 million, Bloomberg reported. The demand forecast for this year was also cut.
