NEW YORK, May 9: Oil jumped to a new intraday record of $126.20 a barrel on Friday, extending gains to more than 11 per cent since the start of the month on fuel supply concerns and a rush of speculator buying. American crude for June delivery was up $2.03 at $125.72 a barrel by 17:15 GMT.

“It appears that any calculations that included waiting for the next pullback were discarded on the European opening this morning as waves of buying materialised, particularly from speculative interests,” said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice-president at MF Global.

Oil has surged since slipping as low as $110.53 a barrel on May 1. Investors have seized on disruptions to crude oil supplies in the North Sea and Nigeria as well as galloping demand for distillate fuels, a category that includes diesel fuel and heating oil.

Strong demand for diesel fuel in Europe, along with the growing use of distillates to power generators to supplement strained power grids in fast growing emerging markets, have cut into stocks of distillate fuel and pushed up prices sharply. “Lingering geopolitical fears and high heating oil prices are helping the market, but the speed of the rise is too fast,” said Tatsuo Kageyama, analyst at Kanetsu Asset Management in Tokyo.—Reuters