World
 
|
Oil prices up over Saudi terror scare
AFP
NEW YORK
Petroleumworld.com 10 28 06
World crude prices firmed on Friday after news of a potential terrorist threat to energy installations in the Gulf and specifically in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, rose 39 cents to close at 60.75 dollars a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for December delivery added 31 cents to settle at 61.08 dollars a barrel.
Western naval forces said they feared possible attacks on oil installations in the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia said its facilities were a "high-probability potential target" but that tight security measures were in place.
"All of us immediately looked up when we heard the news, but we also got reassuring news from the navy (coalition) that at least they are covering the water approaches," said Societe General analyst Deborah White.
"The biggest danger is at sea, because you can come from so many different directions and you can have a relatively small boat that could be carrying a relatively large bomb."
White added: "But if in fact they have taken the normal attack-at-sea precautions then they are probably safe, which is why it was only a momentary blip" in oil prices.
Saudi Arabia, the kingpin of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), pumps more than nine million barrels of oil per day and sits on a quarter of global oil reserves.
"Coalition forces are taking prudent, precautionary measures and focusing maritime security operations in the Gulf on these possible threats," a Bahrain-based spokesman for the coalition naval forces told AFP.
US Lieutenant Commander Charlie Brown said the measures were "in response to recent threats to oil infrastructure in the Gulf, including public statements by Al-Qaeda leadership".
He declined to go into details about potential targets when asked if the threats were aimed specifically against installations in Saudi Arabia, which operates the world's largest oil terminal at Ras Tannura on the Gulf.
Saudi interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki said threats to his country's oil facilities by terrorist groups were ongoing.
"There are preventive measures in any installation, be it Ras Tannura or others, to prevent any terrorist operation," he said.
Crude futures had traded in negative territory for much of Friday as worries over output eased in major oil producers Norway and Nigeria.
Both New York and London Brent contracts closed down more than a dollar on Thursday due to profit-taking.
That came after crude prices had jumped more than two dollars on Wednesday owing to renewed supply concerns as US heating stocks fell ahead of the northern hemisphere winter.
The fall in US inventories suggested to some traders that the 11-nation OPEC cartel was going through on a promise a week ago to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels a day.
OPEC is battling to support crude prices, which stand about 25 percent lower than record highs above 78 dollars reached in July and August.
In Norway meanwhile, state energy giant Statoil resumed production at its Snorre A platform in the North Sea after a two-week halt caused by safety problems.
And in Nigeria, protesting youths left three flowstations of the Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell on Thursday that they had occupied since Tuesday.
Production was "very likely" to restart there Friday, Shell officials told AFP.
Wachovia Securities economist Jason Schenker said oil prices were likely to resume their recent falls after news Friday that the US economy slowed to a growth pace of just 1.6 percent in the third quarter.
"Supplies are still pretty good," he said. "Even though OPEC is cutting supplies, the future numbers like today's US GDP (gross domestic product) look bearish."
AFP 27 2014 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. 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