Oil
prices flat after Iran, Nigeria concerns spark rally
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 01 13 06
World oil prices climbed to three-month highs before stabilising
Thursday after the West tightened the screw on Iran over its nuclear
ambitions and major crude producer Nigeria was hit by unrest.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February,
ended unchanged at 63.94 dollars a barrel having earlier hit 65.05
dollars -- the highest point since October 3.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for February delivery
gained 45 cents to close at 62.62 dollars a barrel, after striking
a three-month high of 63.27 dollars.
"The situation in Iran is making people a bit twitchy,"
said Veronica Smart, an analyst at the Energy Information Centre
in London.
"There could be UN sanctions, so it raises worries in the
mind of oil traders."
Britain, France and Germany on Thursday called for UN Security
Council action against Iran over its nuclear programme, saying
two years of delicate negotiations with Tehran had reached a "dead
end."
Foreign ministers of the European troika said after crisis talks
in Berlin that they would ask the UN nuclear watchdog, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to convene a special meeting to refer
the matter to the highest UN body. The Security Council has the
power to impose sanctions on Tehran.
Iran sparked alarm this week by breaking IAEA seals on three facilities
to resume nuclear fuel work, which the European nations and the
United States suspect could be a front for building an atomic
bomb.
Iran is the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), turning out about four million oil
barrels per day.
Traders were also keeping a close eye on Nigeria, where Anglo-Dutch
oil giant Shell said Thursday that it was losing some 226,000
barrels of crude per day after a major pipeline was sabotaged
and four foreign oil workers were abducted in the African country's
southern Niger Delta.
Nigeria is Africa's largest producer with a daily output of 2.6
million barrels. Shell accounts for almost half of that figure,
and the loss Thursday was 9.04 percent of the country's total
output.
"Besides the Iranian situation, difficulties in Nigeria ...
have prompted follow-through buying," Fimat analyst Mike
Fitzpatrick in New York said.
"Obviously, the speculative interests have found even more
reasons to pile into the market, apparently accepting that unusually
high volatility will continue," he said.
AFP
01/12/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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