The weekend attack in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil
producer, forced Royal Dutch Shell Plc to reduce output, the
Associated Press reported May 3, citing the company. The Nigerian
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND,
claimed responsibility for the assault.
The attacks ``could take more oil off the market,'' said
James Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, in
Galena, Illinois.
Brent crude oil for June settlement rose $3.43, or 3
percent, to a record close of $117.99 a barrel on London's ICE
Futures Europe exchange. Prices rose to an intraday high of
$118.58 a barrel today.
Oil prices were expected to fall this week according to 14,
or 61 percent, of 23 analysts surveyed May 1 by Bloomberg News.
Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators reduced bets
on rising oil prices for the first time in four weeks, the U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission said May 2.
Net-long positions in New York oil futures, the difference
between contracts to buy and sell the commodity, fell 24 percent
to 53,311 contracts in the week ended April 29.
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