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Oil Prices Soar to Four-Month Highs

Posted on: Friday, 20 January 2006, 09:00 CST

Oil prices soar to four-month highs

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- World oil prices closed to four- month highs Thursday on concerns about the Iranian nuclear issue and reduced Nigerian production, even as U.S. energy stockpiles rose.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, rose 1.10 dollars to close at 66.83 dollars a barrel, its highest finish since September 19.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery advanced 1.04 dollars to finish at 65.23 dollars a barrel.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gasoline futures rose less than a penny to 1.776 dollars a gallon, while heating oil futures climbed by 4.14 cents to 1.7969 dollars a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 21.1 cents to 8.905 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet.

U.S. Energy Department report showed domestic crude-oil inventories grew by 2.7 million barrels last week to 321.4 million barrels, or 12 percent above year ago levels. Gasoline inventories expanded by 2.8 million barrels to 211.6 million barrels, or three percent below year-ago levels. The supply of distillate, which includes heating oil and diesel, Increased by 900,000 barrels to 134.7 million barrels, or eight percent above last year.

The report was overshadowed by rising tensions in oil giants Nigeria and Iran. Traders are worried that economic sanctions, which the UN Security Council could impose, will drastically cut world oil supplies and drive up prices.

Attacks on oil supplies in Nigeria, the fifth-largest supplier of U.S. oil imports, were also roiling the energy markets.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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