Friday June 26, 11:11 AM
Oil above $71 dollars on fresh Nigeria attack
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LONDON (AFP) - Oil prices jumped above 71 dollars on Friday as Nigeria's main rebel group said it had launched a fresh attack against an oil installation in the south of the country.
Traders said crude futures were also boosted by a weaker dollar which tends to push up demand for the commodity.
In morning London trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August jumped 82 cents to 71.23 dollars a barrel.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for August, rallied 92 cents to 71.15 dollars.
Nigerian rebels attacked an oil installation in the country's main producing region despite President Umaru Yar'Adua's offer of an amnesty.
Militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in a statment that late on Thursday they attacked an oil well after an army raid on a village that came despite the amnesty offer.
A spokesman for the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) told AFP that the facility was operated by local company Sahara Oil but was close to a Shell installation.
MEND had on Thursday also carried out a pre-dawn attack against Royal Dutch Shell (Amsterdam: RDSA.AS - news) facilities in a warning to Russia not to invest in the country's oil and gas industry made during a visit to Nigeria by Russian President Dimitry Medvedev.
Yar'Adua on Thursday offered Niger Delta militants the amnesty to try to halt attacks on the oil industry that have cut the country's production by a quarter over the past three years.
MEND, which regularly attacks energy facilities, demands a fairer share of oil wealth for locals in the Delta region. Its activities have badly hit Nigeria's oil output, cutting daily production from around 2.6 million barrels in 2006 to some 1.8 million barrels now.
Dealers said oil was also finding support also a weaker dollar, which makes dollar-priced oil cheaper to holders of stronger currencies, encouraging demand and leading to higher prices.
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