美國人開車度假 全球油價創新高 Oil price rise fuels fears on inflation
隨著美國人駕車上路，開始一年一度的暑假，上周五國際油價漲至新的創紀錄高位。
International oil prices rose to a new record on Friday as US drivers took to the roads on their annual summer holiday.
油價漲至每桶75.78美元，引發通脹抬頭的擔憂，這導致美國和歐洲股市下挫。
The increase – to $75.78 a barrel – stoked fears that inflation could rise, leading share prices in the US and Europe lower
分析師稱，油價上升使美聯儲(Fed)和其它央行加息可能性增大，尤其在高油價產生的壓力沒有立即下降跡象的情況下。
Analysts said the rise made it more likely that the US Federal Reserve and other central banks would increase interest rates, especially as pressure from high oil prices showed no sign of weakening soon.
倫敦曼氏金融(Man Financial)資深能源經紀人羅伯特·勞林(Robert Laughlin)表示：“人們在談論(每桶)80美元的`價位;坦率地說，這一價位可能很快就會達到。特別是如果未來兩個月里墨西哥灣出現一次大颶風的話�！�
Robert Laughlin, senior energy broker at Man Financial in London, said: “People are talking about $80 [a barrel]; quite frankly that looks like it could be hit sooner rather than later. Particularly if we get a large hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico over the next two months.”
美國是世界上最大的汽油消耗國，過去4周里，美國的汽油需求已躍升至每天960萬桶。這使得人們擔心，由于去年的颶風使美國煉油廠逾10%的產能關閉，目前各煉油廠仍然艱難應付這一局面，可能難以滿足需求。
Demand for petrol in the US, the world’s biggest consumer, has jumped to 9.6m barrels a day in the past four weeks. This has caused concern that refineries – still struggling after last year’s hurricanes shut down more than 10 per cent of US capacity – could struggle to keep up.
煉油商目前在給工廠升級，以便在加工輕質低硫原油之外，也能加工重質高硫原油。目前重質高硫油的供應量在增多，而隨著世界依賴的油田漸趨干涸，輕質低硫原油產量在萎縮。
Refiners are updating their plants so that they can process heavy, sour crude oil, which is now increasingly in supply, as well as the light, sweet crude oil, whose volumes are dwindling as oil fields on which the world has come to rely run dry.
德勤咨詢(Deloitte Consulting)高級獨立能源顧問約瑟夫·斯坦尼斯拉夫(Joseph Stanislaw)說：“人們的擔憂與夏季有關。消費者仍在駕車并使用汽油，而目前汽油的主要原料輕質油供應卻不充裕。”
Joseph Stanislaw, senior independent energy adviser to Deloitte Consulting, said: “The fears are related to the summer time. Consumers are still driving and using petrol and the light crude oils that produce a higher proportion of petrol are not in abundant supply.”
石油生產國開發重質原油油田的動作，比新煉油廠的增加速度更快，上周沙特阿拉伯的行動就說明了這一點。沙特降低了重質油的價格，同時提高了其輕質原油的價格。
The move by oil producers to develop heavy oil fields more quickly than new refinery units are being added was illustrated by Saudi Arabia this week. It cut the price of its heavier oil and raised the price of its light oil.
但目前油價高企也是人們的憂慮所導致。人們擔心，在當前世界的應急石油供應緩沖余地十分小的情況下，地緣政治的緊張態勢可能會中斷石油供應。
But high oil prices are also being caused by fears that geopolitical tensions could interrupt oil flows when the world has only a slim cushion of emergency supplies.
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