Oil Prices Climb Above $64 Per Barrel
Monday March 27, 12:51 am ET
Oil Prices Climb Above $64 Per Barrel Amid Lingering Concerns About Nigeria and Iran
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Crude oil prices extended gains Monday amid lingering concerns about Nigeria and Iran and as traders started to look ahead to the upcoming hurricane season, which could dent supplies.
Light, sweet crude for May delivery gained 15 cents to $64.41 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Friday rose 35 cents to settle at $64.26 a barrel, 2 percent higher for the week.
Gasoline prices dipped 0.82 cent to $1.8150 a gallon while heating oil futures rose marginally to $1.7925 a gallon.
Natural gas futures fell 14 cents to $7.150 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Prices continued to be supported by concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria and tension over Iran's nuclear program.
Traders were also starting to brace for possible interruptions in oil flows during this year's hurricane season, which starts June 1 and runs through November.
Weather experts predict that the 2006 hurricane season likely would be busy, but probably not as busy as last year, when 26 named storms and 14 hurricanes swept the U.S., ravaging refineries, oil rigs and pipelines along the Gulf Coast.
In Nigeria, militants behind a spate of attacks in the country's southern oil-rich delta that have cut Nigeria's oil exports by more than 20 percent said Saturday they killed three soldiers in fresh clashes near a key natural gas plant run by Royal Dutch Shell. Shell said there was no impact on the gas plant.
Iran, the No. 2 oil producer in OPEC, has been referred to the U.N. Security Council over fears it may want to misuse its nuclear program to make weapons, but the council has been at loggerheads over U.S.-led efforts to ratchet up the pressure on Iran.
The United States, Britain and France support tough language calling on Tehran to return to a freeze of uranium enrichment. Russia and China, the two other permanent Security Council members, are opposed. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes.
On Sunday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Iran would stand firm against any action taken to pressure it to abandon its nuclear program, state-run television reported. |
