LONDON (AFP) - The price of Brent crude oil reached a new record high, as analysts warned a looming strike in Nigeria could drive US crude oil futures up to 60 dollars a barrel.
The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November reached a record summit of 49.30 dollars in early deals in London, breaking the previous peak of 49.20 dollars set Thursday.
In late afternoon deals the contract was up 20 cents at 49.10 dollars.
In New York, the price of reference light sweet crude for November delivery slipped nine cents to 52.58 dollars a barrel in early trading.
US crude oil futures spiked to 53 dollars a barrel Thursday for the first time in the contract's 21-year history, showing a gain of about six percent over the week and almost 60 percent since the start of the year.
The leader of Nigeria's Labour Congress (NLC) said that a threatened nationwide general strike against rising fuel prices would begin Monday after talks with authorities collapsed.
NLC president Adams Oshiomhole, speaking after a meeting with Nigerian governors and oil sector executives, said in Abuja Friday: "I regret to have to say that this meeting was not fruitful because there was no concrete proposal on the table."
"The strike will go on Monday. It is very painful that we couldn't find other solutions," he added.
Previous general strikes have done little to disrupt Nigeria's exports of around 2.6 million barrels of crude per day, but the latest action comes at a time when oil unions are already up in arms over planned job losses.
Workers at the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell launched a separate two-day strike on Thursday, though the company said production had not yet been affected.
"The way things are at the moment it's conceivable that if the strike in Nigeria goes ahead you could see 60 dollars a barrel," said Simon Wardell, senior energy analyst at the World Markets Research Centre.
Investec Securities analyst Bruce Evers was even more bullish.
"US oil prices will most likely be in the 60-70 dollar price band next month," he said.
Analysts said supply worries were having a magnified impact on prices because of concerns about unbridled consumption in the United States and Asia as well as the low level of commercial oil inventories.
"We kind of lose sight of the fact that this is a demand-led price run," said Wardell.
"We do have these supply worries -- we've had them all year -- but in terms of the amount of oil lost from the market because of them, it's very, very low. The underlying reason for all this is the increased demand this year."
Oil prices were expected to fall below 50 dollars a barrel next year on expectations of smooth elections in Iraq, the president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Friday.
"In futures trading in New York, the price for 2005 is trending lower. This is interesting," Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on the resort island of Bali.
Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's energy minister, said OPEC was not planning to increase its output further ahead of its December meeting in Cairo.
Although prices are at record highs, adjusted for inflation they remain far below the levels reached in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution when prices surged to upwards of 80 dollars a barrel in today's money.