New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, rose 1.47 dollars to close at 79.60 dollars a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for December climbed 1.
56 dollars to settle at 78.11 dollars.
"Oil was down this morning and all of a sudden gold took off like a rocket, and then oil took off as well," said Ellis Eckland, an independent analyst.
"Oil is following the lead of gold as a hard asset," he explained.
"There may be a central bank providing liquidity to the market" that is benefiting commodities, the analyst suggested, noting that commodities are "alternative forms of currencies, especially gold.
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Inflation fears stoked by the massive liquidity pumped into the financial sector by central banks recently have pushed investors toward commodities to protect the value of their assets.
The price of gold soared to new record highs Tuesday, topping 1,080 dollars an ounce, a day after the International Monetary Fund announced it sold 200 tonnes of gol