Oil jumps as Nigerian attacks cut output

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Oil prices rallied Monday after militants attacked a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline in Nigeria, leading the Anglo-Dutch energy giant to reduce output.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September, advanced 1.46 dollars to close at 124.73 dollars a barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for September delivery climbed 1.32 dollars to settle at 125.84 dollars a barrel.

Rebels from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta earlier claimed that "heavily armed" MEND fighters had attacked two pipelines in Nigeria's main oil-producing region in the southern Rivers state.

A Shell spokesman confirmed damage to the Kula pipeline but was unable to confirm rebel claims of an attack to a second pipeline.

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