Global crude prices edged higher on Tuesday after losing more than two and a half dollars the day before, with traders refocusing on supply risks tied to Iran and Nigeria. In New York, the June light sweet crude contract gained 89 cents to reach 70.30 dollars a barrel, while London's Brent North Sea June contract rose 56 cents to 70.23 dollars.
Fimat analyst Mike Fitzpatrick noted that prices had "stabilized and moved up a bit" following two days of heavy selling, though he said the underlying drivers, structural shifts in the global economy and political instability in key producing regions, had not changed.
In Nigeria, senior employees at ExxonMobil threatened a strike over a pay dispute. The American energy company is Nigeria's second-largest oil operator, exporting roughly 650,000 barrels per day out of the country's total 2.5 million. Rebel attacks on Niger Delta infrastructure have already cut Nigerian exports by about one quarter in recent months.
On the Iranian front, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a European proposal requiring Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. Western powers were weighing an offer to help Iran obtain a light-water reactor in exchange for that commitment, with UN sanctions a possible consequence of refusal. Markets remain wary because Iran is the world's fourth-largest crude producer.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in May 2006, in its own words.