Soaring oil climbs past $96 mark

US light crude rose as high as $96.24 in Asian trading on Thursday morning before falling back to $96.05.

Traders were concerned by a second weekly fall in US crude stockpiles ahead of the intensive winter period.

At the current rate of increase, prices are set to top $100 a barrel during the next week.

Adjusted for inflation, prices are still below the $101 high reached in November 1980.

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The US government's figures showed that domestic crude stocks fell by 3.9 million barrels last week, worrying analysts who had forecast an increase of 100,000 barrels.

The US is the world's biggest energy consumer and the state of its inventories is a key concern for market watchers.

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Oil prices have risen as the sliding greenback makes oil, which is priced in dollars, cheaper to buy outside the US.

The dollar hit its weakest levels against the pound since 1981 on Wednesday.

At the same time, oil investors have been casting a nervous eye on Turkey's threats to carry out a major military incursion into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish rebels.

In past months, there have also been concerns about the stop-start violence in Nigeria's main oil producing region, the international community's unresolved nuclear dispute with Iran and heating supplies for the US winter.

Mexico was forced to halt one-fifth of oil production at the start of the week by a tropical storm hitting its Caribbean coast, sparking further supply fears, but it has now resumed full production.

Oil producers' body Opec continues to be criticised for not doing enough to restrain prices despite agreeing to lift daily output by 500,000 barrels, an increase which came into effect on Thursday