Oil price tops 48 dollars on threats to Iraqi oil wells

AFP[ THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2004 11:41:41 PM ]
LONDON: World oil prices shot above 48 dollars a barrel for the first time on Thursday as Shiite Muslim militia threatened to torch Iraqi oil fields.

New York’s benchmark light sweet crude for delivery in September spiked 93 cents to an all-time high 48.20 dollars in early deals.

In London Brent North Sea crude for October delivery surged by as much as 77 cents to 43.80 dollars per barrel in trading.

An aide to rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose forces are facing a US-Iraqi offensive in the central city of Najaf, told Al-Jazeera television that residents of southern Iraq have set oil pipelines on fire and threatened to torch oil wells across Iraq.

“Residents of southern Iraq, mainly in Basra and Amarah, have bombed several pipelines and are threatening to torch all the oil wells in the south,” said Sheikh Aws al-Khafagi, head of the Sadr office in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

GNI-Man Financial trader Rob Laughlin said he was aware an Iraqi domestic pipeline was on fire but there are no reports of export pipelines being hit.

“If this were the case then prices would go over 50 dollars,” he added.

Exports of crude from Iraq’s southern oil terminals have been cut by half to around 40,000 barrels per hour for a week because of threats to infrastructure from Shiite Muslim militia, according to Southern Oil Company officials.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/821053.cms