Oil advanced on Monday on a spate of refinery disruptions that raised concerns about gasoline supplies this summer.

An inflow of speculative funds into the market has brought the crude price close to the all-time high of $58.28 set at the beginning of April. Refinery problems in Texas and Kansas were complemented by the a stop at a gasoline-making unit at a ConocoPhillips’ refinery in Louisiana.

On Monday June crude oil futures rose $0.21 to $55.60 a barrel.

The rise in OPEC production has not soothed worries about the possibility of a shortfall in gasoline supplies in summer even though inventories are running at 5% above last year’s levels.

In a Monday meeting between President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah the US president has promised to urge the prince to make an effort to bring down the oil prices, admitting though that there was little the Saudis could do.

"If they pinch the world economy too much, it’ll affect their ability to sell crude oil in the long run," he said in a television interview last week.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi agreed last week to boost production capacity from the current level of 11 million barrels a day to 12.5 million barrels by 2009 and maybe 15 million barrels later on.