Oil prices reached a record high above $47 a barrel today as evidence of demand growth in China and India underlined how rising appetite for oil is straining the world's supply .
US light crude rose 28 cents to $47.55 a barrel, the highest in the 21-year history of the New York Mercantile Exchange contract.
Prices have hit record peaks in all but one of the past 15 trading sessions and are up more than $10 a barrel, or 28 per cent , since the end of June.
Rising demand in emerging economies China and India have shaken up the oil market this year, intensifying competition for supply with established consuming giants such as the United States.
China's refineries have processed 17.2 per cent more crude so far this year than in 2003. Crude imports have soared nearly 40 per cent from last year.
India's biggest refiner, State-run Indian Oil Corp, said it expected India's crude oil imports to rise by 11 per cent in 2004/05 as demand rises by nearly 4 per cent.
Rising demand has left little slack in the system to cope with any supply problems, such as those in Iraq where Shia militia have said they will target oil infrastructure if US forces do not leave the holy city of Najaf.
Iraq's southern pipeline has been shut since a sabotage attack on August 9th, curbing export flows to about a million barrel daily, half normal rates.