NEW YORK, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Crude oil for May delivery on Wednesday closed at nearly 115 dollars a barrel, the third straight day of records, on supply concerns on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

    Crude oil for May delivery rose to an intraday high of 115.07 dollars a barrel in late afternoon trading, before closing up 1.14dollars, or 1 percent, at 114.93 dollars on the New York Mercantile Exchange, also a new closing record.

    The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report which was released Wednesday that crude inventories fell unexpectedly, down 2.3 million barrels to 313.7 million barrels in the week ended April 11.

A worker counts Indian currency at a petrol pump in the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri in this file photo taken on Feb. 5, 2008. Crude oil for May delivery on Wednesday closed at nearly 115 dollars a barrel, the third straight day of records, on supply concerns on the New York Mercantile Exchange

    A weak dollar also helped push crude prices higher earlier in the early session. The greenback hit a new low against the euro in Wednesday trading, with the euro quoting at 1.5977 dollars. The dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against a basket of other currencies, fell 1 percent to 71.37.

    Crude prices, denominated in dollars, tend to rise when the greenback falls, as a weaker U.S. currency makes crude less expensive to buyers holding other currencies. It also eats into oil producers' dollar-denominated revenue and forces them to raise prices.