The cost of crude oil has risen to record highs, attributed to increased tensions in the Middle East and renewed concerns about oil supplies.

Speculative buying and concerns about storms near Puerto Rico were also raising prices, analysts have said.

Light, sweet crude oil, scheduled for the December delivery rose by 88 cents to $91.34 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

It briefly rose to a new trading record of $92.22 during Asian trading.

The Nymex crude contract jumped $3.36 to settle at $90.46 a barrel on Thursday in the US, closing above $90 a barrel for the first time.

Eugen Weinberg, a commodity analyst, said: "With oil taking the $90 hurdle, a price of $100 seems more and more likely, if only for speculative reasons."

As the US announced new sanctions against Iran, analysts say that any confrontation between the US, the world's largest oil consumer, and Iran, the fourth-largest oil producer, has the potential to effect markets.

Muhammad-Ali Zainy, a senior energy economist at the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London told Al Jazeera that if OPEC does not act in regard to oil supply and demand, then it is likely that oil prices will rise to $100 a barrel.

Meanwhile, traders worry that further hostilities in the Middle East would draw in oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.