Oil flirts with record highs again

World oil prices eased from fresh record highs on Tuesday after Iraq resumed exports following an attack on the pipeline from its southern oilfields.

US light crude touched 45.04 a barrel, a record in the 21-year history of crude futures trade on the NYMEX, before the news of restored Iraqi supplies sent prices down 44 cents on the day to 44.40 a barrel. London brent crude was down 22 cents at 41.34 a barrel. With world oil producers pumping close to full capacity, fears are that another outage in Iraq could send prices up to 50 a barrel. 8212;Reuters