Oil marched above $60 today after investors were unnerved by al-Qaeda's new call for militants to strike oil sites in Muslim states, that pump nearly 20 per cent of world supply.
Prices had already been pushed higher by expectations that stockpiles of heating fuel would be drawn down in the US northeast, the world's biggest heating oil market, in the grip of a cold snap.
US crude rose 66 cents to $60.60 a barrel today, having gained just 3 cents yesterday, its fifth consecutive day's rise. London Brent crude was up 69 cents at $58.30.
Al-Qaeda claimed a direct hit on Iraq's Basra Oil Terminal in the Gulf last year. Iraq's oil pipelines are regularly put out of action by sabotage.
"Oil always seems to attract inflammatory rhetoric," said Peter Gignoux, a London-based energy analyst.
"And this is just another case of it."
Today's al-Qaeda video comes ahead of a meeting on Monday of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Kuwait, where leading oil producers are due to map out strategy for early 2006.
Oil has tested above $60 a barrel every day this week, but failed to stay there as traders took profits from the market's nearly $4 a barrel gains in the past week.
"There are a couple of countervailing forces in play," said Andrew Harrington, resources analyst at ANZ Bank in Sydney.
"There still seem to be plenty of stocks available but we're at the beginning of a heavy demand winter, which is going to be a draw on them. I think the trend is on the upside after... short-term lower prices during the extended autumn."