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London: Oil prices jumped on Monday on an unexpected rise in US gasoline sales in March, which pushed the country's overall retail sales higher for the month.
A brief US pipeline shutdown and some production losses in Nigeria also helped bolster crude prices.
US crude oil futures rose $1.21 to $111.35 a barrel by 1540 GMT. It hit a record high of $112.21 last week.
London Brent crude rose 80 cents to $109.55, closing in on its record high of $109.98 struck last week.
"The gain in March retail sales and a little bit about the Capline outage. That combination pushed crude up," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading.
US retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.2 per cent in March, pushed up by a jump in gasoline sales.
Sales at gasoline stations rose 1.1 per cent even though pump prices hit a record in March, the Commerce Department said yesterday. Excluding gasoline sales, retail sales were flat last month.
The Capline crude oil pipeline, which brings crude from the Gulf of Mexico to the US Midwest, restarted yesterday following a brief shutdown due to a leak and it will return to normal operation in a few days.
"We would expect repairs to be done quickly but until confirmation of completion this will be a supportive flag to watch for," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland in a research note.
In Nigeria, ENI's Beniboye oil flow station has been losing 5,000 barrels of oil per day due to a fire that broke out during at the weekend after sabotage, the Italian energy firm said yesterday. Nigeria produces about two million barrels of oil a day.
Falling dollar
Some analysts said a fall in the dollar also helped oil prices to rise. The US currency weakened yesterday, reversing its initial gains earlier in the day.
The recent weakness of the US currency has prompted investors to shift money from dollar assets to commodities markets, partly contributing to oil's rally to new peaks.
During Asian and London trading, oil was mostly pressured down as weaker stock markets underlined economic gloom and the expectation of falling energy demand.
On Saturday, Opec's head of petroleum market analysis told the International Monetary Fund's steering committee that global demand appeared to be softening, and that high oil prices in recent months were due more to financial market developments than fundamental growth in demand.
"Oil market fundamentals point to a market which is currently well supplied and the balance is expected to soften further due to lower seasonal demand in the coming months," Mohammad Ali-pour Jeddi said in a statement.
His comments were set against growing signs of economic slowdown in the United States and after the International Energy Agency lowered its oil demand forecasts on Friday.
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