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Oil pushed above $127 a barrel for first time

Oil prices soared more than $3 a barrel, surpassing $127 for the first time Friday and putting more pressure on already lofty gasoline and diesel prices ahead of the summer driving season in the northern hemisphere, according to the Associated Press.

Also pushing oil prices up were speculation that China's demand for diesel needed to fuel its power plants would rise due to reconstruction efforts after this week's earthquakes and an upward revision of an oil price forecast by investment bank Goldman Sachs from $107 to $141 a barrel for the second half of the year.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose as high as $127.82 a barrel in electronic trading by afternoon in Europe, before retreating to $127.55, up from Thursday's close of $124.12.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 10:32 AM to Crude oil market | Permalink

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