Oil prices slipped today from record highs reached after the death of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, US refinery outages and tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions rattled the market.
US light sweet crude fell 64 cents to $60.93 a barrel, after hitting a peak of $62.30 a day earlier. London Brent crude lost 67 cents to $59.77 a barrel, after also jumping to a record highs of $60.98 yesterday.
When adjusted for inflation, oil briefly traded near $90 a barrel in the early 1980s.
Oil has climbed about 40 per cent this year, with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries struggling to meet demand by producing at 25-year highs. Saudi Arabia, the leading member of the OPEC cartel, is pumping about 9.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and has vowed to keep spare production capacity of 1.5 million to 2 million bpd to meet any supply shortfalls.
Crown Prince Abdullah, who is Fahd's half brother and has been Saudi Arabia's de facto leader since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, was swiftly pronounced monarch of the world's largest oil exporter after Fahd died yesterday.
He will adhere to Saudi Arabia's long-standing oil policy aimed at ensuring global markets are well supplied, the kingdom's next US ambassador, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said.
But analysts said markets were jittery over the longer term Saudi policy.