Spanish:
 
|
Oil prices stable after foreign hostages released in Nigeria
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 03 28 06World crude oil prices stabilised on Monday after Nigerian separatist guerrillas released three kidnapped oil workers, but supply tensions remained, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, dipped 10 cents to close at 64.16 dollars a barrel.
But in London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery rose 10 cents to 63.61 dollars a barrel.
A late rally in London saw the world's headline contracts for crude futures diverge. But the New York market also pared earlier losses to finish barely lower.
"There continues to be plenty of the type of supply worries that should serve to further the recent price gains," Fimat analyst John Kilduff said.
"Middle East worries are once again at the fore, with upcoming elections in Israel (Tuesday)," he said.
Explaining the earlier falls, Sucden analysts said the release of the abducted oil workers "raised hopes that there may be a more peaceful solution to the crisis in Nigeria".
Nigerian separatist guerrillas released two Americans and a Briton after holding them hostage for more than a month, according to a state government spokesman.
Abel Oshevire told AFP that US oilmen Cody Oswald and Russell Spell and British security expert John Hudspith had been handed over to officials in Warri after being held captive in the swamps of the Niger Delta.
The men were among a group of nine foreign workers who were kidnapped on February 18 by heavily-armed militants fighting for control of the delta's oil resources. The other six men were released after a week.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest crude producer, is also suffering attacks to its oil facilities.
A bomb attack on a pipeline owned by Italian oil giant Eni on March 17 cut production of crude in the Niger Delta by 75,000 barrels per day, Eni said Friday.
This brought Nigeria's total losses since a renewed campaign of violence against the oil industry to more than 20 percent of the country's output.
Eni said it hopes to repair the pipeline by the end of the month but in the meantime had declared "force majeure" in order to avoid paying damages to clients waiting for crude at the Brass export terminal.
Another supply concern was the ongoing dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Germany, France and Britain this week for talks on the UN deadlock over Iran, a State Department official said Monday.
Word of her trip came as London announced that the foreign ministers of the UN Security Council's five permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- plus Germany would meet Thursday in Berlin to discuss Iran.
Rice acknowledged during a round of Sunday television talk shows that differences persisted over the language of a UN Security Council statement seeking to keep Iran from pursuing sensitive nuclear work.
Iran, the second-largest producer of crude in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has said that any attempt to impose UN sanctions could be met with a cut in its crude supply.
AFP 27 03 06 2049 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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