NEW YORK, Oct 12 (AFP) - New York's main oil contract pierced 54 dollars for the first time Tuesday, boosted by strikes in Nigeria and Norway, before sliding as investors locked away fat profits.
New York's benchmark light sweet crude contract for delivery in November touched an unprecedented 54.45 dollars but then slumped to close at 52.51 dollars, down 1.13 dollars on the day.
In London, Brent North Sea crude oil for November tore past 54 dollars for the first time, hitting a record 51.50 dollars a barrel, before dropping to a close of 49.60 dollars, down 1.06 dollars.
"It is profit taking, not a change of trend," said Wachovia analyst Jason Schenker.
"We have had a nice run up, you cannot take a dollar a day forever."
Prudential Bache trader Tony Machacek, in London, described the slump as a "natural retracement."
"A move back to the downside should not be a big surprise to the market," he said.
Prices had soared earlier in the day as Nigeria's general strike entered its second day.
"Everybody is worried," said Lee Elliot, a trader with GNI-Man Financial in London.
"There are great concerns about Nigeria. Though it is not affecting oil at the moment, people think it might. Also there is a strike going on in an oil rig in Norway."
Russia's justice ministry announced plans to sell a part of the Yukos oil giant to cover its back taxes, officials said.
The sale would include a part of Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' largest oil subsidiary, which accounts for 62 percent of its production, at an undisclosed date, a spokeswoman for the justice ministry said.
Traders were nervous ahead of US petroleum inventory data, to be released Thursday, following persistent supply problems in the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Ivan.
With demand in China and the United States racing ahead, traders worried about disruptions to supplies, particularly light sweet crude, of which Nigeria is a major producer.
Nigerian unions began a four-day general strike on Monday in protest at rising fuel prices, launching their latest challenge to President Olusegun Obasanjo and his programme of economic reforms.
Adding to the concerns, a pipeline carrying crude oil across the Niger delta to Nigeria's main export terminal burst into flames, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said, warning production would be cut during repairs.
In Norway, the world's third-biggest exporter of crude, strike action by some 200 off-shore workers that has lasted since the beginning of July was reported to have cut Norway's production by 55,000 bpd, or two percent.
Meanwhile, the Paris-based International Energy Agency lifted its forecast for global oil demand in 2004 but pared its estimate for next year.
In its monthly oil market report for October, the organisation raised its global oil demand forecast for this year to 82.4 million barrels per day from 82.16 million bpd previously due to stronger-than-expected demand from Asia.
But next year it sees global oil demand growth slowing sharply to 1.8 percent from 3.4 percent this year.
World oil prices have more than doubled from about 20 dollars a barrel in New York at the start of 2002.
Adjusted for inflation, however, 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.