Oil hits NY closing record at 49.64 dollars

NEW YORK, Sept 27 (AFP) - Oil futures jumped to their highest closing on record Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising 76 cents to 49.64 dollars a barrel as unrest in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia alarmed traders.
Oil prices soared after oil majors in Nigeria evacuated non-essential workers from the troubled Niger Delta oil region and as police clashed with suspected Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh at the weekend.
"The problems of Nigeria have obviously got worse over the weekend, with both Shell and Agip (a unit of ENI) evacuating non-essential workers from the south Nigerian Delta," said Robert Laughlin, a trader at GNI-Man Financial.
"This is a major problem that we don't need because they produce sweet crude oil. There is just not enough sweet crude oil."