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SINGAPORE: World oil prices eased slightly on Tuesday
as Scottish refinery workers prepared to end a two-day strike which
helped send prices to record highs.
The industrial action by around
1,200 workers at Grangemouth, west of Edinburgh, was set to end at
0500 GMT.
The strike helped to push New
York oil to a record of $119.93 a barrel on Monday, a gain of more
than 80 percent from a year ago.
In afternoon trade, New York’s
main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery,
eased 33 cents to $118.42 a barrel on Tuesday.
Brent North Sea crude for June
delivery fell 28 cents to $116.46 a barrel. The contract struck an
all-time high of $117.56 last Friday.
David Moore, a commodity
strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney, said the
downward adjustment in prices was due to news that the workers in
Scotland would be returning to work.
Moore cautioned that oil prices
would remain “volatile in the near term,” with the market
watching the two-day US Federal Reserve meeting, which ends on
Wednesday.
Analysts expect the Federal
Reserve to lower its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.0
percent before taking a pause after a series of aggressive rate cuts
to stimulate the ailing US economy.
The Scottish refinery strike,
which began Sunday, forced energy giant BP to shut down the
neighboring Forties pipeline which supplies 40 percent of
Britain’s oil and gas.
The Forties pipeline, which
depends on the Grangemouth refinery for power, brings more than
700,000 barrels of crude oil ashore daily and supplies Britain and
international markets.
Over the past two weeks, crude
prices have smashed through a series of record highs, sparking
widespread concern among consumer nations.
--AFP
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