Oil prices struck a fresh record above $48 a barrel on Thursday, spurred higher by renewed violence in Iraq and fresh evidence that strong demand growth in China and India has not been slowed yet by higher energy costs. US light crude rose 93 cents to $48.20 a barrel, a new record, and London Brent gained 77 cents to $43.80 a barrel. US prices have set record peaks in all but one of the past 15 trading sessions and are up nearly $11 a barrel, 29 per cent, since the end of June. Rising world oil demand has left little slack in the system to cope with outages in Iraq.
