Oil Hits $90 a Barrel

Weakening dollar and Mideast tensions bust a new record
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 19, 2007 6:57 AM CDT
Oil Hits $90 a Barrel
Crude oil futures traders work on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)   (Associated Press)

After five straight days of record-breaking, oil prices smashed the $90-a-barrel mark in after-hours trading overnight, pumped up by the weakening dollar and fears that Turkish military strikes across the border in Iraq could disrupt supplies. Investors pushed the price of light, sweet crude to $90.02 before it fell back to $89.44 by midafternoon today in Singapore.

"The weak dollar is pushing the price higher,'' an energy expert told Bloomberg. "It's hard to see how this is going to turn around quickly.'' The dollar fell to 1.4302 against the Euro today. OPEC agreed last month to increase oil production by an extra 500,000 barrels a day starting November 1, but experts warn not to expect much relief from that move. "Additional output from OPEC won't affect the market that's reacting to non-fundamental factors," says Indonesia's OPEC governor. (More oil prices stories.)

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