Oil prices climbed above $61 a barrel on Monday after the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, but expectations that the new king would keep oil policy unchanged stemmed the rise.US light, sweet crude was up 52 cents at $61.09 a barrel after hitting a near three-week high of $61.23.The price has risen 40 per cent this year and is just over a dollar below the record high of $62.10 hit on July 7.King Fahd died in hospital on Monday and will be succeeded by Crown Prince Abdullah, his half-brother who has been the de-facto ruler of Saudi Arabia since Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995.Analysts felt, ‘‘The death of King Fahd could have a psychological effect on markets. Anything which adds uncertainty to the market could be construed as bullish in the short-term.’’Before the news of Fahd’s death, prices had risen on Monday after a spate of refinery problems in the United States resurrected concerns about meeting strong fuel demand.BP added to the anxiety at the weekend by shutting a gasoline-producing unit at its giant Texas City refinery — the third-largest in the US and source of 3 per cent of its gasoline — for maintenance, a regulatory filing showed.It was unclear whether or not the shutdown was related to a Thursday night fire in a secondary unit that BP had said reduced the plant’s overall gasoline production by 35,000 bpd.That fire came four months after an explosion at the plant killed 15 workers, highlighting the rising risks to operations as refiners attempt to run flat-out to satisfy rising demand.‘‘Any instances such as the recent fires are going to really play on the market’s mind, add that little bit more to a risk premium,’’ said Gerard Burg, minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd.Although stockpiles of most fuels are relatively healthy for this time of year, traders fear refiners may be hard-pressed to satisfy rising summer motor fuel consumption while also stocking up enough distillate supplies to meet peak winter consumption.Refineries have been running near full tilt all summer, hitting 98.1 per cent of capacity at the beginning of July, but outages have crimped operating rates. They were running at just 93.5 per cent of capacity last week. Valero Energy said on Friday production was reduced slightly at two of its refineries, while Marathon and Murphy Oil also shut refining units late last week.
