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‘Rogue broker’ blamed for oil spike By Javier Blas and Izabella Kaminska in London Published: July 2 2009 12:07 | Last updated: July 2 2009 20:26 The startling spike in oil prices to their highest level this year on Tuesday was caused by a rogue broker who placed a massive bet in the Brent oil market, triggering almost $10m (€7m) of losses for his company. PVM Oil Associates, the world’s largest over-the-counter oil brokerage, said on Thursday it had been the “victim of unauthorised trading”. The privately owned company said that as a result of the unauthorised trades it had...

Saudi Arrests 172 In Terror Swoop Updated: 13:59, Friday April 27, 2007 Saudi Arabia has arrested 172 suspected members of seven terrorist cells, according to the Interior Ministry. Some of those arrested were linked to al-Qaeda and were training as pilots to be used in attacks on state oil sites, reports on Saudi television said. More than $5 million in cash and a large stockpile of weapons were also seized in the raids. Some of it was found buried in the desert. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the militants included non-Saudis and that one cell planned to storm a prison...

Oil surges to $66 a barrel ... Developing

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices broke into record territory above $52 Thursday on heightened concerns that supplies of heating fuels will prove inadequate during the northern hemisphere winter. U.S. light crude futures set an all-time high at $52.38 a barrel, marking a 60 percent surge in prices so far this year on the strongest demand growth in a generation and a thinning cushion of spare capacity to cope with supply outages. London's Brent crude also struck a record peak, at $48.15 a barrel. "We're in uncharted territory. There aren't many reasons to sell and there's lots of reasons to buy...