Oil above US$69 as Nigeria truce eyed
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
OIL was steady above US$69 ($105.7) a barrel yesterday, supported by production disruptions in Nigeria that have tightened supplies of light crude oil that is in heavy demand in the summer to make gasoline.
Nigerian militants, who have attacked oil installations in the country's Niger Delta oil producing region, have called a one-month truce. But analysts saw little to suggest an end to 18 months of violence that has shut in about a third of the Opec member's oil output.
London Brent crude, currently seen as a better gauge of the global market, was up 18 US cents at US$69.25 at 1106 GMT (6.06pm, Brunei time).
US crude was 35 US cents lower at US$64.73.
"Nigeria is keeping the market quite tight," said Helen Henton, head of commodity research at Standard Chartered Bank. She noted that the International Energy Agency has repeatedly called for the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to increase production. "But Opec is being quite strident about it being a US refinery problem."
A series of outages at oil refineries in the US have contributed to a supply bottleneck in US gasoline supplies. Reuters
Nigerian militants, who have attacked oil installations in the country's Niger Delta oil producing region, have called a one-month truce. But analysts saw little to suggest an end to 18 months of violence that has shut in about a third of the Opec member's oil output.
London Brent crude, currently seen as a better gauge of the global market, was up 18 US cents at US$69.25 at 1106 GMT (6.06pm, Brunei time).
US crude was 35 US cents lower at US$64.73.
"Nigeria is keeping the market quite tight," said Helen Henton, head of commodity research at Standard Chartered Bank. She noted that the International Energy Agency has repeatedly called for the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to increase production. "But Opec is being quite strident about it being a US refinery problem."
A series of outages at oil refineries in the US have contributed to a supply bottleneck in US gasoline supplies. Reuters
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