"It seems to me like oil traders are looking with some interest at the headlines coming out of the G8 meeting," said Dave Ernsberger, Asia director of global energy information provider Platts in Singapore.
The London Brent contract hit an all-time peak of $ 146.69 and New York crude struck a record high of $ 145.85 last Thursday.
Soaring oil and food prices pose a "serious challenge" to stable worldwide economic growth, Group of Eight (G8) leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States warned today.
At their meeting in Japan, they also called for an increase in oil production and refining capacity to help stem soaring prices. "The G8 leaders are clearly trying to talk this market down," Ernsberger added.
Oil had slumped yesterday, losing almost $ 4 in New York, on the back of easing geopolitical tensions over Iran's nuclear program and a strengthening US dollar.
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However, jitters about key crude producer Iran returned to haunt the market today. Iran would "set on fire" Israel and the US navy in the Gulf as its first response to any American attack over its nuclear programme, an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned today.
"The first US shot on Iran would set the United States' vital interests in the world on fire," said Ali Shirazi, a mid-ranking cleric who is Khamenei's representative to the naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards.