Oil Charges Above $55 as Funds Pile In LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices surged above $55 a barrel on Thursday as investment funds bet that rapid demand growth will keep supply under strain through this year. U.S. light crude for May delivery jumped $2.15 to $55.20 a barrel, posting gains of around 19 percent in just over three weeks. U.S. prices are barely a dollar below a record of $55.67 hit in October. North Sea Brent crude leaped $1.78 to $53.00 a barrel, the highest level in 17 years of trade on the International Petroleum Exchange, eclipsing a previous record set in October. Oil's rise has been driven by a fresh influx of both speculative and long-term fund money into commodities, where surging raw materials demand from China and solid growth in industrialized nations have stretched production capacity. The dollar's sharp fall last week accelerated the inflow as rising energy markets offered a place for speculators to park their cash and OPEC producers were thought likely to pursue higher dollar-denominated prices to protect purchasing power. "It's going to be extremely difficult for this market to break below $50 this year. The only thing that would do it is a major slowdown in demand from a recession," said Nauman Barakat of brokers Refco in New York. Refinery problems in the massive U.S. oil market have helped send gasoline futures to a record $1.545 a gallon in New York. Disruptions at Texas oil refineries included a brief outage at a gasoline unit of BP's big Texas City plant and a fire at Western Refining Co.'s refinery in El Paso. The market becomes more sensitive to problems with gasoline production in the world's largest energy consumer with the approach of spring, as dealers anticipate rising motor fuel demand for the summer vacation season. Maintenance restricted U.S. refineries to 89.3 percent of capacity last week, their lowest rate in four months, exacerbating fears that global product supplies could tighten significantly. Prices are high despite comfortable U.S. gasoline and crude inventories which are about 10 percent above year-ago levels. "With demand expected to exceed year ago levels, even minor supply disruptions could tip the balance toward tighter stocks," said Fimat bank USA in a report.     Continued ... Quelle "Oil Charges Above $55 as Funds Pile In" : reuters.com Main page for "Oil Charges Above $55 as Funds Pile In"