Oil stays below $50 a barrel mark

Oil prices have slipped back from record levels, narrowly avoiding a breach of the $50 a barrel mark. Fresh violence in Iraq triggered yet another oil price surge on Friday, before dealers starting taking profits.

New York light crude rose as high as $49.40 after reports of a new attack on an Iraqi oil pipeline, but then slipped back to close at $47.86.

However, with the situation in Iraq still uncertain, oil prices could still surge through past $50, dealers said.

Earlier, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the president of oil cartel Opec, told reporters he was concerned about the rising oil price.

He added, however, that the group would wait until its next meeting, scheduled for September, before taking action.

“I am concerned to see oil prices continuing to increase. But at the moment, we have not seen cost-pushed inflation,” he said.

The UK benchmark, Brent crude oil, recorded a fresh high of $45.15 a barrel, before falling back to close at $43.54 on Friday.

However, this could be a brief respite.

“Oil at $70 is entirely conceivable,” for example if “there is a big supply problem and Iraq and Venezuelan oil came off the market”, said Bruce Evers, an oil expert with Investec.