VOL. XLVII

No 19

10-May-2004

Oil Markets Fear New Phase Of Middle East Violence

Global oil markets remain shaken by the impact of two recent attacks in Iraq and Saudi Arabia targeting the oil industry and foreign employees in it. Worries about security in the Middle East as a whole, combined with gasoline shortages in the US and rising demand globally (especially in China) as a result of the world economic recovery, have pushed crude prices to record high levels.

On 23 April, the last trading...