year high and silver set a 23-year peak Tuesday. "The ultimate deterrent for the oil market is when the price becomes too expensive for people to fill their tanks," said Ian Henderson, fund manager at JP Morgan Fleming. "I think they will continue to carry out their travel plans even with oil prices as high as $100 a barrel." The world's economies are racing ahead despite energy costs at their highest in real terms for a quarter of a century. "With the U.S. and global economies still showing strong signs of resilience, expectations for oil demand growth in 2006 and 2007 remain robust," Deutsche Bank said in a research note. "The United States and China account for a substantial proportion of the total world oil growth in 2006 and 2007." Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told Kuwait's KUNA news agency Tuesday that Iran had begun producing enriched uranium -- a direct challenge to the United States and the United Nations' nuclear agency. U.S. President George W. Bush has dismissed reports of plans for military strikes on the world's fourth biggest oil exporter as "wild speculation" but the market remains nervous. "The market is not really factoring in the true impact of military action but the mere mention of it sends prices higher," said Gerard Burg, economist at the National Australia Bank. With the loss of Nigerian oil, a high yielder of gasoline, set to encroach on the U.S. summer driving season, traders are nervously eyeing falling fuel supplies, hit by high demand and extensive refinery maintenance to comply with cleaner U.S. fuel standards. Analysts polled by Reuters predict U.S. gasoline inventories fell last week by an average 2.4 million barrels, extending a 14.1 million-barrel fall in the previous five weeks to March 31, in U.S. government data to be released Wednesday.
