Oil Near Highs, Nigeria Threat Eases
By Reuters
08 October, 2004
Reuters
Oil
prices held near record highs on Friday even though oil unions in OPEC
member Nigeria said a two-day wildcat strike would pass without any
impact on exports.
U.S. light crude
(CLc1: Quote, Profile, Research) by 1205 GMT slipped 29 cents to $52.38
a barrel, after touching $53 on Thursday, the third day in a row prices
set all-time highs.
London Brent (LCOc1:
Quote, Profile, Research) slipped 20 cents to $48.70 after an early
rally had struck a new record $49.30 a barrel.
Prices made only
limited losses after a senior union official said a two-day strike by
Nigerian oil workers at Royal Dutch Shell Group (RD.AS: Quote, Profile,
Research) (SHEL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) would end later on Friday
and that exports continued normally.
Strong demand growth,
particularly in China, has helped oil surge 60 percent this year, drawing
OPEC to pump at a 25-year high and leaving little margin for supply
disruptions or refinery outages.
"Demand growth
is outstripping supply growth and there's very little prospect for that
to change," said Rus Newton of commodities hedge fund manager Global
Advisors.
"Prospects
of maintaining supply growth at current levels are extremely limited,"
Newton added
Stretched supplies
have been further stressed by the lingering loss of U.S. production
from the Gulf of Mexico where around 475,000 bpd remains out of commission
over three weeks after Hurricane Ivan hit the region.
Oil major BP, which
operates nearly half the lost output, said this week that it did not
expect to restore full flows until the end of this month.
This outage coupled
with last month's refinery closures during the hurricane have hindered
efforts to build U.S. heating oil inventories ahead of the winter, when
demand for the fuel peaks in the U.S. northeast.
U.S. heating oil
prices have already hit record highs on concern that supplies will tighten
further as temperatures drop.
Tight inventories
have magnified concerns over the impact of any disruptions to international
supplies.
In Nigeria, a general
strike by the umbrella labor union looms on Monday over rising domestic
fuel prices, although officials said they were not trying to hit exports.
Nigeria supplies refiners in Asia, the United States and Europe with
the high-quality crude grades prized for their high yield of transportation
and heating fuels.
Production is being
curtailed in Norway by a rig workers strike that unions say will widen
at the weekend to shut in 55,000 bpd of the nation's three million bpd.
Oil dealers are
keeping a close eye on the impact of fuel costs on global economic growth.
Despite this year's
sustained surge in prices, officials have expressed mixed views on the
potential impact on economic growth.
The European Central
Bank on Thursday injected a note of caution into hopes for euro zone
economic recovery and retreating inflation, saying oil prices were making
the outlook less certain.
"If oil prices
remain high, it could dampen the strength of recovery, both inside and
outside the euro area," said ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet.
Japan also sounded
a note of caution on Friday.
"Japan's economy
is recovering firmly, but one of the greatest risks is oil prices,"
said Japanese Economics Minister Heizo Takenaka