NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Oil prices hit a new record of 50.47 US dollars a barrel on Tuesday as rebels in Nigeria threatened oil output and hurricane Ivan slashed production in the Gulf of Mexico, despite Saudi Arabian pledge to increase output.

¡¡¡¡On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light crude settled at 49.64 dollars a barrel after touching 50.64 dollars, the highest intraday price since futures began trading in 1983.

    Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange, Brent crude futures closed at 46.45 dollars a barrel, up 52 cents after hitting 46.80 dollars, the highest intraday price since 1988.

    On Tuesday, violence in Nigeria continued to overshadow world energy markets. Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Nigerian venture closed a pumping station and evacuated staff at oil installations in the Niger River delta as rebels threatened oil output in the largest African oil-producing country.

    Meanwhile, oil output in the Gulf of Mexico fell 29 percent from 1.7 million barrels as a result of hurricane Ivan. The restoration of output was being delayed by a limited number of repair craft.

    Some analysts said the oil prices might rise "well above" 50 dollars per barrel as the demand continued to rise.

    "Somewhere between 55 dollars and 60 dollars a barrel is where it will top in the short term," said a fund manager in California.     

    However, US Treasury Secretary John Snow called the jump in crude oil prices a "short-term" phenomenon brought on by geopolitical uncertainties.

    The surge in oil prices will be one of the key issues to be discussed as the Group of Seven industrialized nations meet in Washington D.C. later this week.     

    SAUDI ARABIA TO INCREASE OUTPUT

    Saudi Arabia, the world's top crude exporter, will raise its daily oil output to 11 million barrels in weeks to help dampen soaring prices, said the kingdom's Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Bin Ibrahim al-N'aimi on Tuesday.

    The move was aimed at stabilizing the world oil market and dampening record high prices, he said.

    He said Saudi Arabia is fully prepared and well equipped to meet an increasing oil demand.     

    EU WARNS OF NEGATIVE IMPACT

    In Brussels, economic and monetary commissioner of the European Union (EU), Joaquin Almunia, warned on Tuesday that record oil prices were threatening to derail the euro-zone economic recovery.

    "If this level is maintained in the coming months, the European economy will suffer a little bit in terms of less growth and more inflation," he said.

    He believed, however, the present oil price surge was abnormal and would not be permanent.     

¡¡¡¡OPEC PRESIDENT: CAN DO NOTHING TO CURB OIL PRICES

    The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Tuesday the oil cartel can do nothing to curb the soaring oil price as it is not controlled by the supply-and-demand law.

    "At the meantime, there is nothing that OPEC can do to drive down price. We have no plan to move forward our meetings," OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesian Energy Minister, was quoted by Detikcom online news service as saying. Enditem