"Oil prices have surged to almost $115 a barrel as China builds up stocks before the Olympics and hedge funds pour money into commodity futures as a way to exploit the collapse of the dollar.
The Opec producers cartel yesterday defied calls from Gordon Brown for a boost in output to help ease the global shortage, sticking to its target of 32m barrels per day (bpd) for the next three months
There is some evidence that Opec has actually cut output by 350,000 bpd since the start of the year - a hostile move in the current climate. It blames the latest spike on "speculators", claiming that world demand will fall 1.4m bpd to 85.7m this quarter as the US grapples with recession." -UKT
