Saturday, February 25 2006 10:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Oil prices spiked on world markets as an attempted suicide car bomb attack against a major Saudi oil facility reignited supply concerns.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said that output from the world's number one producer was unaffected by a foiled ['terrorist' attack against a processing plant in the oil-rich Eastern Province.

Still, the uncertainty added support to prices, which were already surging on supply concerns over Nigeria, Iran and Iraq.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, soared 2.37 dollars to US$ 62.91 per barrel in closing trading yesterday after spiking as high as US$ 63.25. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery gained 2.06 dollars to end at US$ 62.60 per barrel.

James Williams at WTRG Energy said the market was especially sensitive to the Saudi incident. "Since Saudi Arabia is the only source of spare capacity, any damage to this facility would have a larger impact than a similar event in another country," he said.

Bill O'Grady at AG Edwards added that the attack "clearly signals that Al-Qaeda is concentrating on oil, and not the government." Fimat analyst Mike Fitzpatrick said the Saudi incident added to jitters stemming from religious strife in Nigeria and concerns about Iraq and Iran.

Prices had fallen Thursday on data that had revealed healthy stockpiles of US energy. However concerns about output cuts in Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer, resurfaced yesterday (Feb 25,2006).