NEW YORK: World oil prices diverged sharply on Monday as traders balanced expectations of rising Saudi Arabian output with news of a fresh supply outage in Nigeria.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell $1.99 to $97.30 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for July rose 32 cents to $119.10 a barrel, marking a record spread of nearly $22 between the prices of the two benchmark contracts.
The plunge in the WTI price was due to "weaker fundamentals in the US" and the restoration of the Keystone pipeline, which delivers crude from Canada to the United States, said Matt Smith, an analyst with Summit Energy.
Prices were also held down by expectations that Saudi Arabia will pump more crude after failing to clinch an output boost for the 12-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Last week Riyadh pushed OPEC to raise production amid worries that high oil prices were harming the global economic recovery, but was rebuffed by Iran and its allies.
Reports that Saudi Arabia is unilaterally boosting output to as much as 10 million barrels per day are "definitely putting some downward pressure" on oil prices, said Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFG Best Research.
Saudi Arabia's official OPEC quota is 8.05 million barrels a day but the International Energy Agency estimates it is already producing above that amount, at 8.8 million barrels daily.
Supply-side tensions in Africa and the Middle East helped push up the Brent price, with news of fresh supply problems in Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil producer.
Shell in Nigeria warned on Monday it may not be able to meet its contractual obligations for June and July on its Bonny Light crude - a type of Nigerian oil - after multiple pipeline fires and leaks blamed on sabotage.
Nigeria has suffered repeated attacks on oil facilities in recent years amid unrest in its main oil-producing region, the Niger Delta.
Continued unrest in Libya and Syria also propped up the market. "There's still some concern about the loss of Libyan oil keeping the Brent crude supported," Flynn said.
- AFP/de
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell $1.99 to $97.30 a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for July rose 32 cents to $119.10 a barrel, marking a record spread of nearly $22 between the prices of the two benchmark contracts.
The plunge in the WTI price was due to "weaker fundamentals in the US" and the restoration of the Keystone pipeline, which delivers crude from Canada to the United States, said Matt Smith, an analyst with Summit Energy.
Prices were also held down by expectations that Saudi Arabia will pump more crude after failing to clinch an output boost for the 12-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Last week Riyadh pushed OPEC to raise production amid worries that high oil prices were harming the global economic recovery, but was rebuffed by Iran and its allies.
Reports that Saudi Arabia is unilaterally boosting output to as much as 10 million barrels per day are "definitely putting some downward pressure" on oil prices, said Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFG Best Research.
Saudi Arabia's official OPEC quota is 8.05 million barrels a day but the International Energy Agency estimates it is already producing above that amount, at 8.8 million barrels daily.
Supply-side tensions in Africa and the Middle East helped push up the Brent price, with news of fresh supply problems in Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil producer.
Shell in Nigeria warned on Monday it may not be able to meet its contractual obligations for June and July on its Bonny Light crude - a type of Nigerian oil - after multiple pipeline fires and leaks blamed on sabotage.
Nigeria has suffered repeated attacks on oil facilities in recent years amid unrest in its main oil-producing region, the Niger Delta.
Continued unrest in Libya and Syria also propped up the market. "There's still some concern about the loss of Libyan oil keeping the Brent crude supported," Flynn said.
- AFP/de
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