THE price of crude oil hit yet another record on the last day of a tumultuous first half, spurting past US$143 a barrel before ending lower on demand fears and a resilient dollar. Crude has shot up nearly 50 percent since the start of the year, in large part on the dollar's troubles, and analysts expect that trend to remain intact as the second half of 2008 begins.

A government report lowering oil and gasoline demand estimates and a dollar hanging tough nullified investor concerns over supply, a fragile global economy and continued tensions in the Middle East.

"What this shows is that demand destruction in the US is a lot larger than previously thought," said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Alaron Trading Corp in Chicago. "There are more signs that demand is deteriorating."

Light, sweet crude for August delivery lost 21 cents to settle at US$140.00 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In early electronic trading, the contract hit a record US$143.67.

On Friday, crude futures spiked at a record US$142.99 a barrel in New York before falling to US$140.21.

In London, Brent crude futures lost 48 cents to settle at US$139.83 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London. Earlier yesterday, the price for Brent had peaked at US$143.91.

The Energy Information Administration reported that oil usage in April was lower than previously estimated, falling to 4.2 percent to 19.768 million barrels per day from 20.631 million. That was 3.9 percent lower than in April 2007 and the lowest level for the month in six years.

A hardier dollar also sent oil prices lower yesterday. Often times, buying oil futures is used as a hedge against a weaker dollar.

"A lot of the momentum from late last week was the expectation we would continue to see a weaker US dollar. When that didn't materialize, we had some profit-taking," said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Florida-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.