There appears to be no end in sight for soaring oil prices as the cost of a barrel of crude hit a new high today at just below the 45 US dollars mark.

The cost of crude surged further from last night's record to reach 44.99 US dollars before settling back to around 44.70 US dollars. The latest increases come after an uprising forced Iraq to close its southern oil production.

With supply concerns set to persist, experts said it looked more likely that the price would reach the 50 US dollars level in the near future.

And the soaring prices will eventually have an effect on the price UK motorists pay for petrol, retailers have predicted.

Although the latest hike would "not immediately" affect prices here the rise reflected a general trend in the market which would eventually hit home.

Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers Association, said there was a "disconnect" between crude oil and pump prices.

But he added: "If this price were to be maintained for a length of time it would probably feed through to prices in the forecourts."

Oil prices in the US "frankly do not matter" to the UK, Mr Holloway added, although he predicted that high prices would eventually have an effect, probably "within four to six weeks".

"We will ultimately pay more for our petrol," he said.

A spokesman for BP said: "There are lots of things that affect the price of petrol. Oil prices are one of them."

A spokesman for ExxonMobil UK said: "We don't speculate on whether prices are going go up or down."

Tuesday August 10, 2004