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Oil hits record near $146

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By Lee Wild

Date: Friday 11 Jul 2008

LONDON (ShareCast) - Recent posturing by Iran and ongoing worries about security in Nigeria sent oil prices to a fresh high Friday close to $146 a barrel.

The August contract leapt more than $4 to $145.98 a barrel in New York before cooling down around 70 cents later.

Iran has been firing off missiles this week in a planned show of strength aimed at deterring Israel and its allies from attacking Tehran’s uranium enrichment programme.

The West says the programme is just a ruse used to cover up President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s ambition to develop nuclear weapons, a claim he denies.

Israeli war planes are rumoured to have practised manoeuvres over Iraqi airspace in preparation for an assault on Iranian installations.

Traders fear the world’s fourth largest oil producer could respond by blocking the flow of crude through the Straits of Hormuz, a key supply route to the global market.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown appears to have caused trouble in Africa by promising to help Nigerian security forces "tackle lawlessness" in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

The announcement prompted rebel group the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta to call off its two-week-old ceasefire from midnight tomorrow and resume attacks on oil facilities in the region.

A spate of violence and kidnappings of oil workers attributed to MEND has caused output from the world’s eighth largest oil producer to fall by one quarter in recent months.

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