Oil
prices rocket on Iran, Nigeria fears
By Julie Charpentrat
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 01 18 06
Oil prices raced past 65 dollars a barrel here Tuesday to their
highest close since late September on rising concerns over supplies
from Iran and Nigeria, dealers said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February,
jumped 2.39 dollars to close at 66.31 dollars a barrel, the highest
finish since September 29.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery
soared 1.72 dollars to close at 64.90 dollars a barrel, also its
highest point in more than three months.
"Both Brent and New York light crude futures were higher
as concern about Iran's restarted nuclear enrichment programme
and the supply problems from Nigeria (intensified)," Sucden
analysts said.
While the United Nations standoff with Iran will take time to
unfold, attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria are a pressing concern,
analysts said.
"In the very near term the Nigerian issue could generate
more immediate buying pressure," Fimat analyst John Kilduff
said.
"The frequency of the attacks and the apparent lack of any
ability to control them puts the country's entire output at risk,"
he said.
Nigerian separatists warned Anglo-Dutch giant Shell and other
foreign energy companies on Tuesday to leave the oil-rich region
of Niger-Delta or face action.
Over the past week in the southern region, armed gangs have kidnapped
four foreign oilmen working for Shell and sabotaged a pipeline,
costing the firm over 200,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Nigeria is the world's sixth-biggest crude exporter.
Crude futures have gained around five percent since the start
of 2006, driven by geo-political concerns particularly regarding
Nigeria and Iran, which stands accused of secretly pursuing a
nuclear weapons programme.
Europe's leading nations are pressing for an emergency meeting
of the UN atomic watchdog over Iran's nuclear ambitions, amid
signs that Tehran may yet agree to a compromise proposal from
Russia.
After talks in London on Monday that also included officials from
China, Russia and United States, the EU troika of Britain, France
and Germany said it wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency
to meet on February 2-3.
Investors fear that UN-imposed economic sanctions against Iran
might prompt OPEC's second-biggest exporter to halt its crude
shipments.
"The concern is that if Iran's 2.4 million bpd of exports
is curtailed, the market currently does not have the spare capacity
to cope with such a loss," Kilduff said.
Alaron Trading's Phil Flynn said: "Iranian oil exports are
in jeopardy. This is the most serious threat to the world's oil
production since the hurricanes this past summer."
Traders were also absorbing the International Energy Agency's
monthly review of the oil market.
Demand for oil in China and the United States will drive a 2.2-percent
increase in global oil consumption this year and an anticipated
seasonal fall in demand in the second quarter looks uncertain,
the IEA said Tuesday.
The agency also said that it had revised down its forecast for
growth of demand for oil in 2005 to 1.3 percent from a previous
estimate of 1.4 percent.
In 2006, global oil consumption is forecast to average 85.1 million
bpd, an additional 1.8 million bpd compared with 2005, the IEA
said.
"Overall, the report suggests that demand will recover this
year, while supply growth won't be all that robust. Thus, the
markets will likely remain tight," AG Edwards analyst Bill
O'Grady said.
AFP
01/17/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
Send
this story to a friend
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write
to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels
|
|
