(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-21 17:45

Although oil prices are now near their inflation-adjusted peak from 1980, the oil market has continued to rally, buoyed in part by mounting fears that winter fuel supplies may come under strain if December is colder than usual, as forecasters expect.

US weekly distillate stocks - which include heating oil - are expected to have dipped by 300,000 barrels last week, although crude stocks were seen rising by 600,000 barrels and gasoline increasing by 800,000 barrels, a Reuters poll of analysts showed, ahead of Wednesday's data.

"We're all set to have $100 oil by this evening with US distillates stocks expected to fall," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, an analyst from CFC Seymour in Hong Kong.

The unrelenting rally in oil prices has prompted US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman to step up the pressure on OPEC to pump more crude, although most of the cartel's members blame speculation and politics - not a supply shortage - for near $100 oil.

The group will meet on December 5 in Abu Dhabi to decide whether to increase production again after its 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) increase agreed in September failed to tame prices.

Adding support on Tuesday, a Royal Dutch Shell oil sands upgrading plant near Edmonton, Alberta, caught fire late on Monday, forcing units off line.

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