Oil prices edged upward on news that a Nigerian militant group attacked an oil installation yesterday, raising concerns about possible supply outages in Africa's largest oil producer.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery was up 16 cents to $136.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by noon electronic trading in Europe The contract on Wednesday rose $2.67 to settle at $136.68 a barrel.
A leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told The Associated Press that militant fighters traveled in boats through heavy seas to attack the Bonga oil field more than 100 kilometers from land. But they were not able to enter a computer control room that they had hoped to destroy.
A Royal Dutch Shell spokesman confirmed an attack, but gave no details. He said production had been stopped from the field, which normally produces about 200,000 barrels of crude per day.
The news added to concerns about the threat of a strike by Nigerian white-collar oil workers. Crude futures had climbed more than $2 a barrel on Wednesday on reports that Nigerian oil workers were about to strike after talks between US energy giant Chevron Corp and the country's white-collar oil industry workers had broken down - although a later news report said the walkout had been averted.
Traders were also digesting a mixed weekly inventory report from the US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
"There was a smaller-than-expected drop in crude supplies and a reasonably healthy rise in distillates," said Mark Pervan, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ Bank in Melbourne, Australia.
The EIA report said crude oil supplies fell 1.2 million barrels last week, less than the 2 million barrel decline expected by analysts surveyed by energy research firm Platts, and inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose 2.6 million barrels - more than expected.
Still, Vienna's JBC Energy, in its daily report, said the US stock draw was significant when expressed in year-on-year terms, nothing that "crude oil stocks have fallen sharply by around 53 million barrels compared to end June 2007".
Gasoline supplies fell 1.2 million barrels last week, where analysts were expecting an increase of nearly 1 million barrels.
Source:China Daily/Agencies
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