(Updates prices, adds data from Commodity Futures Trading
Commission)
By Fayen Wong
PERTH, April 28 (Reuters) - Oil struck a record high at
$119.93 a barrel on Monday, extending the previous session's
rally, as a strike closed a major British oil pipeline and as
new violence in Nigeria reignited supply fears.
Simmering tensions between the United States and Iran also
helped boost oil prices.
U.S. light crude for June delivery <CLc1> rose 88 cents to
$119.40 by 2324 GMT, after striking a lifetime high of $119.93
a barrel shortly after electronic trading resumed after the
weekend.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 66 cents to $117.
"Supply side concerns underpinned the oil price," David
Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia, said in a note to clients.
"Oil supplies from Nigeria have been disrupted by militant
attacks and a strike by some oil workers. A strike at the
Grangemouth refinery in Scotland has caused significant
disruption to supplies from the North Sea," he said.
The 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) Fortis pipeline, which
carries nearly half of Britain's oil, was closed on Sunday as a
strike over pensions began at the neighbouring 210,000 bpd
Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, operator BP <BP.L> said.
[]
The refinery, owned by international chemical company
Ineos, produces a tenth of Britain's petrol and diesel but also
supplies vital steam and power to BP's Kinneil plant that
processes the crude oil coming ashore from 70 North Sea fields.
The government has said that there will be no overall
shortages of fuel but conceded that there may be some local
supply problems, particularly in Scotland and northern England.
BP said that assuming it got power back as soon as the
strike ended and Fortis fields resumed production rapidly, the
pipeline could be back in operation within 24 hours but might
take a few more days to get back to full flow.
In Nigeria, unidentified gunmen killed five policemen and
seized several weapons in a raid on a police station in the
oil-rich southern Nigerian state of Rivers on Sunday, a police
spokeswoman said.
The attack comes just two days after a strike and attacks
by rebels forced Nigeria's two largest oil firms, Exxon Mobil
<XOM.N> and Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>, to shut some
production.
The strike forced Exxon to shut down 200,000 bpd of crude
output, a senior union official said, while Shell has already
been forced to shut 169,000 bpd of Bonny Light crude production
after a pipeline attack in the Delta a week ago.
A step up in tensions between U.S. and the world's
fourth-largest crude exporter Iran also contributed to oil's
gain.
A cargo ship hired by the U.S. military fired warning shots
at boats suspected to be Iranian, the U.S. Navy said on Friday,
underscoring tension in the Gulf as the Pentagon sharpened its
warnings to Tehran over its nuclear ambitions. []
Iran denied there had been any confrontation between its
forces and a U.S. ship, Iranian media reported, and said on
Sunday a "disastrous situation" facing the United States in
Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with Washington's domestic
issues, made any U.S. attack on the Islamic Republic unlikely.
[]
Tensions between Washington and the OPEC nation last year
helped send oil to record highs. Crude prices have surged more
than five-fold since 2002 as supplies struggle to keep pace
with rising demand in emerging economies, such as China.
Crude oil speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange
increased net long positions in the latest week, according to
data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on
Friday.
Net crude long positions rose to 70,562 in the week to
April 22, up from 66,526 in the week to April 15.
(Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
