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SINGAPORE: World oil prices continued higher in Asian
trade on Friday after edging closer to a new record, as geopolitical
tensions resurfaced and supplies tightened in the United States,
dealers said.
At 1:39 p.m. (0539 GMT), New
York’s main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, rose
12 cents to $76.42 a barrel from $76.30 in late US trades Thursday,
when the contract traded as high as $77.43.
That was not far off the record
high of $78.77 reached on August 1.
Brent North Sea crude for October
delivery was one cent higher at $74.78 a barrel.
Victor Shum, senior principal at
Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore, said a combination of factors
have helped push prices higher, including a United States warning of
“terrorist” threats against US and other Western commercial
operations in Nigeria, the world’s sixth-biggest crude producer.
“All these are bullish
factors,” he said.
Continuing unrest in Nigeria has
already led to about a quarter of the country’s 2.6 million
barrels-per-day output being cut.
Shum said Syrian reports that
Damascus had fired on Israeli warplanes that violated Syrian
airspace added to nervousness in the oil market. The Israeli
military refused on Thursday to comment.
Additional price support came
from a weekly report by the US Energy Information Administration,
which revealed Thursday that American crude reserves tumbled by 3.9
million barrels in the week ending August 31.
That was far heavier than analyst
consensus forecasts of a drop of 2.2 million barrels.
American gasoline inventories
meanwhile sank by 1.5 million barrels.
The weekly report came one day
later than usual because of Monday’s Labor Day holiday in the
United States.
Shum said the peak of the
Atlantic Ocean hurricane season is providing yet another factor to
keep prices elevated. Hurricanes pose a potential threat to oil
installations.
Hurricane Felix slammed into
Central America on Tuesday and top US experts predicted six more
hurricanes would form in the Atlantic region this year.
The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries cartel is to meet in Vienna on Tuesday but
traders generally expect it to maintain its production quota at 25.8
million barrels of oil a day, a factor which is also supportive of
prices, Shum said.
--AFP
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