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NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices rocketed to a record high of $65 a barrel Wednesday, powered by refinery outages and falling gasoline inventories.
The broad-based rally in energy futures, which also saw gasoline and heating-oil futures set records, was driven by heavy speculative buying. Speculators were betting that demand will outstrip supply as refiners struggle to churn out enough refined products.
After touching $65 a barrel, September crude settled on the New York Mercantile Exchange at $64.90, up $1.83 from the previous day's close and itself a new settlement high.
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