August 2, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 3, 1424

LONDON, Aug 1: Oil prices put on a late surge Friday as traders, anxious after yet another latest pipeline sabotage in Iraq, covered their trading positions before the weekend. The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for September delivery was up 1.01 dollars per barrel to 29.38 dollars in late deals, having been steady for most of the day.

New York’s light sweet crude benchmark September contract was 1.03 dollars higher at 31.60 dollars in morning trading.

“We have seen the same strong close every Friday for the past few weeks,” said Barclays Capital analyst Orin Middleton.

“The market doesn’t want to be short ahead of the weekend, given the political uncertainty in Iraq and other countries,” he said.

“If we come through the weekend unscathed, we will go down early Monday morning.”—AFP