Oil prices fall below 68
dollars
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 01 25 06
Oil prices fell below 68 dollars on Tuesday, though losses were
limited by lingering supply concerns despite a Saudi Arabian offer
to provide extra crude, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March,
dropped 1.04 dollars to close at 67.06 dollars a barrel.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery
lost 82 cents to end at 65.34 dollars a barrel.
Traders said profit-taking set in after crude futures soared above
69 dollars a barrel in New York Monday for the first time since
September.
Supply disruptions in Africa's biggest oil exporter Nigeria and
tensions in Iran -- the world's fourth-biggest producer of crude
and second-largest in OPEC -- have explained the rally.
But prices fell Tuesday "on profit-taking as top exporter
Saudi Arabia promised yesterday that it will supply extra oil
if needed", Sucden analysts said in London.
"However, falls are expected to be fairly limited as a result
of supply concerns," they added.
Gunmen stormed a riverside oil complex in the southern Nigerian
city of Port Harcourt in a fleet of speedboats on Tuesday, shooting
dead eight policemen and a civilian worker, officials said.
While the attack may have been a robbery, it came shortly after
separatist rebels threatened to attack oil firms in revenge for
the arrest of two ethnic Ijaw leaders, and will further deepen
the crisis in Nigeria's oil industry.
Unrest in Nigeria has caused the loss of 200,000 barrels of crude
in daily production.
Amid the concerns over global energy supplies, Saudi Arabia's
Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said in an interview with Indian television
that the oil kingpin was ready to boost supplies to 11 million
barrels per day from 9.5 million.
"The immediate issue is Nigeria because there is destruction
as we speak. Iran is still producing oil and needs to produce
oil because it is how they make their money," Oppenheimer
analyst Fadel Gheit said.
"Things are balancing out. We have very unusually warm winter
here (in the United States). There are no shortages. Demand has
not increased," he added, while warning that prices could
test new highs because of the tensions.
Crude oil futures hit nominal highs in late August.
Following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on US Gulf
Coast energy installations, prices struck 70.85 dollars per barrel
in New York and 68.89 dollars in London.
"I have no doubt that we are going to have new highs. The
question is, when?" Gheit said.
AFP
01/24/06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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