World oil prices climbed in London today on supply fears after Iran threatened to force prices higher if sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council over Teheran's resumption of nuclear fuel research.
Elsewhere, Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said it had evacuated 326 staff from Nigeria following deadly attacks on its pumping stations there.
In London trading, the price of Brent North Sea crude for February delivery jumped 76 cents to $63.02 a barrel. The contract, which expires later tonight, had earlier reached as high as $63.18.
The New York Mercantile Exchange was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday in the United States. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, had closed at $63.92 a on Friday.
Iran had said over the weekend that it was 'not scared' of being hauled before the UN Security Council, and warned that any sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme could cause an unexpected hike in oil prices.
Davoud Danesh-Jaafari, Iran's economy minister, was quoted as saying by state television on Sunday: 'Any sanctions in the current situation would be more detrimental for the West than for Iran. Any disturbance of the economic and political situation of the country could turn the regional situation into a crisis and increase the price of oil higher than what the West expects.'
Iran's referral to the UN Security Council was 'a done deal', a European diplomatic source said today, after officials from Britain, France and Germany debated the topic in London with counterparts from China, Russia and the US. US and Europe allege that Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at building a nuclear weapon, a charge that Tehran has repeatedly denied.
Iran, the second-biggest oil producer within OPEC, pumps some 4.2 million barrels a day, of which 2.7 million bpd are exported.
Elsewhere, traders were eyeing developments in Nigeria, where the oil industry was facing a security crisis after separatist militants overran a pumping station and gunned down soldiers and workers on Sunday.
Guerrilla fighters from a group seeking independence for the Niger Delta had raided Shell's Benisede flow station, torched two houseboats and sabotaged equipment. The Nigerian military refused to say how many soldiers and militants had been killed in Sunday's firefight.
Shell has confirmed that a cook working at the site had died and that 10 more workers had been injured. The firm has shut Benisede and three nearby plants, evacuating 326 staff from the delta swamps for safety.
Although Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer, pumping around 2.6 million bpd, most Nigerians still live in crippling poverty, especially in the remote creeks of the delta.
