Posted on 05/01/2006 1:57:56 AM PDT by RWR8189
Singapore - Oil rallied above $72 a barrel on Monday, extending a rebound towards record highs as Iran maintained a defiant stance in the face of possible UN sanctions and militants detonated a car bomb in Nigeria. US light, sweet crude zoomed 54 cents higher to $72.42 a barrel by 06:40 GMT, adding to a 91c gain on Friday that helped limit last week's losses to 4.4%. Trading was thin due to holidays in much of Asia and Europe.
IPE Brent crude was up 43c at $72.45.
"Most people appear to be very nervous and are looking for something to happen between Iran and the UN," said Tetsu Emori, the chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures.
Oil has tumbled from a record peak $75.35 a barrel a week ago as dealers took profits and grew more confident about summer gasoline supplies, partly thanks to US President George Bush's call to temporarily ease fuel standards.
But geopolitical jitters provided a solid base, analysts said, preventing prices from retracing much of the more than $11 gains they have registered this year.
While oil prices look to be well supported at above $70, the momentum of a rally that had added $15 to prices from March 21 to April 21 had faded, said Tobin Gorey of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Iran, which the world's nuclear watchdog said last week had ignored calls to abandon its atomic programme, vowed on Sunday to carry on pursuing a nuclear fuel cycle and to strike back if it comes under attack.
UN ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France are expected to introduce a Security Council resolution this week to legally oblige Iran to comply with demands to halt enrichment.
Failure to do so could result in limited sanctions, although Russia and China - the other two veto-wielding council members - say they do not favour such a move for now.
If the Security Council moves too slowly, the United States is ready to take steps outside the UN to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said.
Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian told a news conference in Pakistan that curbs on the country's oil industry were unlikely to be any part of UN sanctions, but dealers remain anxious over the world's fourth-biggest exporter.
Ongoing violence in Nigeria, where militants have succeeded in cutting production by a quarter, added support.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which wants more local control over the southern delta's oil wealth, said it had detonated 30kg of dynamite in a car bombing close to a refinery in the oil capital of Warri.
There were no casualties, an army spokesperson said.
The militants said it was a warning to oil industry workers and investors, singling out the Chinese government, which last week clinched a multi-billion dollar deal for access to oil acreage.
Meanwhile speculative short-term fund managers expanded their net long positions a week ago, boosting New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) non-commercial net crude length to a fresh one-year high of more than 74 000 lots in a bet that prices would continue to rally, regulatory data showed on Friday.
SOP: Accuse anyone of not agreeing with the objective of being a DUmmie.
The thing is, these solutions, which are as much government policy as is a strategic oil reserve, haven't been followed through. No attempt has been made to make commuter rail as convenient (it would be more so) than is air travel. There hasn't been any follow-through on MPG standards. Gas prices have been too low, actually, to encourage alternative resources.
ANWAR doesn't solve the problem, it just puts it off for a few years. Last time oil drilling went through in Alaska, it was supposed to (1) be sold domestically and (2) give some more time for real solutions.
Besides that, send home the 12+ million invaders, and revoke lots of green cards, send home more workers, and that'll increase available fuel resources. It makes no sense to encourage more population in the most wasteful country on earth.
Yeah, and where does this country ever stop dismantling the mess we're in?
FWIW, I'm in favor of gas prices reaching a level that forces conservation or alternatives. And my residences (if the plan holds) will be a house built to be self-sufficient back in the '70s and another with nice access to city stuff and public transportation.
Check this out:
"Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Assessment 2006"
http://www.mms.gov/revaldiv/RedNatAssessment.htm
“The United States Could become the new middle east"
http://www.gilanet.com/wallace/oil.htm
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