Monday, October 1, 2012

Oil prices rise on Middle East friction

NEW YORK?-?Crude oil prices rose modestly Friday as worries over Middle East tensions stoked concerns about supply from the oil-rich region.

New York?s main contract, light sweet crude for November, gained 34 cents from Thursday in choppy trade, closing at $92.19 a barrel. In London, Brent North Sea crude for November delivery settled at $112.39 a barrel, up 38 cents, after spending part of the session in the red.

Matt Smith at Summit Energy said the oil market was ?very undecided ? we are just trading sideways.? Oil prices, which had jumped sharply Thursday, were still supported ?because of the overhang from the geopolitical rhetoric yesterday and this week from the UN General Assembly, specifically with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu?s comments yesterday,? Smith said.

During his address before the UN, Netanyahu called for a ?clear red line? to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb. He used a red marker pen to draw a line through a cartoon diagram of a bomb to illustrate what the international community?s limit for Iran?s nuclear enrichment program should be.

He said Iran had 70 percent of the necessary uranium for a bomb and warned that at the current pace of enrichment, the Islamic republic could have nearly all the material needed to create a first bomb by next summer. ?Tensions between Iran and the West reinforced concerns about potential supply disruptions,? Phillip Futures said in a market commentary.

?Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew his ?red line? for Iran?s nuclear program in a speech at the United Nations... and voiced confidence the United States shares his view.?

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