Oil prices rising on demand, Pickens says

NEW YORK, May 20 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices rose to a record in New York Tuesday after Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said prices were being pushed by inadequate supplies.

A day after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stated that production levels wouldn't increase before September, Pickens said speculators were not driving prices, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"There is no bubble," Pickens said, predicting oil prices would reach $150 per barrel this year.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil prices rose dramatically to $129.07 per barrel, before receding 57 cents to $128.50.

The price of heating oil fell 0.0057 in late trading to $3.77 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices fell 0.0034 cents to $3.301 per gallon. Natural gas prices rose 0.008 cents to $11.373 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline reached a record $3.80, up from Monday's price of $3.794, AAA said.