KEY POINTS:
The high kiwi dollar continues to insulate New Zealand from even higher petrol costs but imported crude prices are now consistently above the highs of the winter of 2006.
Overnight, the price of crude oil rose above US$104 ($129.5) a barrel for the first time, after Opec gave
no indication it would increase production, United States fuel inventories declined and Venezuela sent tanks to its border with Colombia.
The accompanying graph (near end of story) is from figures for the week ended February 29, collated by the Ministry of Economic Development.
Figures also show petrol companies' margins at 15.5c a litre of 91 octane petrol, down from nearly 20c last September. Taxes and levies are at 70c a litre, nudging their 70.1c a litre high of last November.
Overnight, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to maintain production targets at a meeting in Vienna.
US supplies fell for the first time in eight weeks, the Energy Department said. Venezuela activated the country's navy and air force, in addition to 10 tank battalions being mobilised.
"Venezuela is sending troops to the Colombian border and everyone is a afraid that things will escalate," said Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank's chief energy economist in New York.
"Analogies with Kuwait in 1990 are being made. As if that's not bad enough, crude inventories fell more than 3 million barrels, when they were supposed to rise."
Crude oil for April delivery rose US$5, or 5 per cent, to settle at US$104.52 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a record close.
It was the biggest one-day increase since January 30, 2007. Futures touched US$104.95 a barrel, the highest since trading began in 1983. Prices are up 74 per cent from a year ago.
Brent crude for April settlement rose US$4.12, or 4.2 per cent, to US$101.64 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, a record close. Futures reached a US$102.29 a barrel on March 3, a record intraday price.
On October 15, prices passed the previous all-time inflation-adjusted record, reached in 1981 when Iran cut oil exports. The cost of imported oil used by US refiners averaged US$39 a barrel in February 1981, according to the Energy Department, or US$92.50 in today's dollars.
"Opec decided not to change production but there were comments that raised concerns, helping to push prices higher," said Rachel Ziemba an analyst of RGE Monitor, an online economic research company in New York.
"The Opec communique and oil- minister statements raise the possibility that even if supplies aren't tight, that might not be the case in the future."
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, who sets policy in the world's largest oil exporter, said earlier that supply and demand were stable. Naimi said that Opec's aim was to keep stockpiles near the five-year average.
Crude-oil prices also rose because the US dollar dropped to an all-time low against the euro, increasing the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment. The dollar touched US$1.5303 per euro, the weakest since the euro's start in 1999.
