Crude oil prices in Asia jump

Crude oil prices in Asia jump

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Rising Middle East tensions pushed Asian crude oil futures prices to an eight-month high yesterday.

Early Asia prices took their cue from a surge in London and New York on Friday after news the United States was sending its 73,000-ton aircraft carrier Nimitz to the Middle East Gulf.

Washington was responding to Iranian raids on an opposition group, one of which took place in the Iraq no-fly zone, patrolled and monitored by the United States and its allies.

November North Sea Brent in London jumped US$1.13 per barrel on Friday to settle in London at $21.61, its highest level since February.

By midday Asian time yesterday, the Brent contract was not quoted on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange, but traders said they expected prices to remain firm.

November New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude futures jumped 99 cents on Friday to $22.76, also an eight-month high.

The rally continued in Asia on Monday, where the NYMEX November contract was last traded at $22.90, up 14 cents from New York's close.

A further bullish ingredient came over the weekend with the first bomb attack on the United Nations office in Baghdad since the "oil-for-food" program was started late last year.

The program allows Iraq to sell oil to buy humanitarian supplies for its people, who have suffered shortages due to a U.N. trade embargo to punish Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Crude prices rose more than $2.00 per barrel last week alone and have shot up around 18 percent since mid September on increasing worries about crude supplies from the Middle East -- a region holding 65 percent of global reserves.