Oil near $77 a barrel, and it ain't just the middle east-Nigeria

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http://www.marketwatch.com

Crude futures climb to a record near $77
Violence in Lebanon, uncertainty over Iran combine to fuel output concerns

By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:19 PM ET Jul 13, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures rallied to record level near $77 a barrel Thursday as violence in Lebanon and uncertainty over the conflict between Western nations and Iran's nuclear program and other political hot spots around the world combined to fuel concerns about the stability of oil production in the Middle East.
"The oil market has extreme jitters over continued violence in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, layered over continuing intransigence by Iran and its nuclear ambitions, and with North Korea test-firing missiles," said Anthony Michael Sabino, an associate professor of law at St. John's University, whose general law practice includes oil and gas law.
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Crude for August delivery climbed as high as $76.85 a barrel -- a height never before seen in a front-month contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange -- as the conflict between Israel and Lebanon following the abduction of two Israeli soldiers escalated.
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In addition to Middle Eastern tension, two pipelines operated by an Eni venture in Nigeria were attacked, resulting in the halting of 120,000 barrels of day in production, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing a local Nigerian newspaper.
"Niger Delta militia attacks on a Chevron convoy in Delta state and ENI's pipelines in Bayelsa state indicate that the militias have woken up from their summer slumber, just as tensions between the country's powerful political elites are ratcheting up," said Sebastian Spio-Garbrah, an analyst at Eurasia Group, noting that the attacks coincided with the escalation of "fierce jockeying" among the country's political elites over the 2007 election.