Crude oil rose after rebel attacks in Nigeria cut output from Africa's largest producer by almost 20 percent and militants threatened further assaults.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc said Sunday it had shut 455,000 barrels of a day of production after rebels attacked an oil terminal and pipeline, and kidnapped nine foreign oil workers. Nigeria pumps about 2.4 million barrels a day, or almost 3 percent of global output.
"The situation in Nigeria is likely to remain volatile for some time," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior investment strategist at CFC Seymour Ltd., a Hong Kong based securities firm. "Prices should rise because of disruptions in supply."
Crude oil for April delivery rose 1.9 percent to $61.05 a barrel in electronic trading on London's ICE Futures exchange at 9:39 a.m. Singapore time. That's 31 percent higher than a year ago. The New York Mercantile Exchange, the world's largest energy market, is closed today.
In Japan, oil for July delivery rose as much as 2.6 percent to 43,200 yen a kiloliter on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange. That's equal to $58.14 a barrel. It traded at 43,070 yen at 10:17 a.m. in Tokyo.
Oil prices have tripled since 2001 as global demand, led by China and the U.S., has risen faster than production.
The militant Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it attacked Shell's Forcados export terminal, the 115,000- barrel-a-day EA field and a pipeline in the Chanomi Creek area. Shell can't say when the Forcados terminal will reopen, London- based spokeswoman Caroline Wittgen said by telephone yesterday.
Nigeria, which is the fifth-biggest supplier to the U.S., produces low-sulfur, or sweet, crude oil, prized by refiners for the proportion of high-value gasoline it yields. Shell, based in The Hague and the world's third-biggest oil company, produces about half of Nigeria's output.
E-mail: wkennedy3@bloomberg.net