The U.S. public protest against soaring oil prices outside the White House, US, June 30. (Xinhua/Reuters photo)

    BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Oil prices jumped to a record above 75 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, fuelled by rising demand for gasoline.

    Light sweet crude for August delivery briefly surged to 75.40 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before easing back to settle at 75.19 dollars, an increase of 1.26.

    Gasoline futures jumped by more than 5.7 cents to settle at 2.2758 dollars a gallon, heating oil closed at 2.0626 dollars a gallon, up 3.4 cents.

    The previous intraday record for front-month oil futures was 75.35 dollars, set on April 21.

    Oil prices are now roughly 26 percent higher than a year ago, but still below all-time inflation-adjusted highs of around 90 dollars.

    But with global oil demand approaching 85 million barrels per day, traders are extremely nervous about the possibility of any supply disruptions, especially because there is less than 2 million barrels a day of spare production capacity, most of it in Saudi Arabia.

    A protracted diplomatic standoff between the West and Iran, OPEC's No. 2 oil supplier, has kept a high floor beneath prices. Markets already have been jittery about Iran's nuclear program and violence in Nigeria and the Middle East.

    The latest spike in oil comes one day before the U.S. government releases its closely watched weekly petroleum supply report Thursday.

    Gasoline supplies are expected to show a decline for a second straight week as demand runs about 1 percent above year ago levels for the past month. Enditem

(Agencies)