LONDON, Jan 16: World oil prices climbed here on Monday on supply fears after Iran threatened to force prices higher if sanctions were imposed by the UN Security Council over Teheran’s resumption of nuclear fuel research.

Elsewhere, Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said it had evacuated 326 staff from Nigeria following deadly attacks on its pumping stations there.

In London trading, the price of Brent North Sea crude for February delivery jumped 76 cents to $63.02 per barrel.

The New York Mercantile Exchange was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday in the United States. New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, had closed at $63.92 per barrel on Friday.

“Brent crude futures surged on Monday on continued concern about oil supply from Iran and Nigeria,” analysts at the Sucden brokerage said.

Iran had said over the weekend that it was “not scared” of being hauled before the UN Security Council, and warned that any sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme could cause an unexpected hike in oil prices.

Davoud Danesh-Jaafari, Iran’s economy minister, was quoted as saying by state television on Sunday: “Any sanctions in the current situation would be more detrimental for the West than for Iran.

“Any disturbance of the economic and political situation of the country could turn the regional situation into a crisis and increase the price of oil higher than what the West expects.”

Iran, the second-biggest oil producer within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumps some 4.2 million barrels per day, of which 2.7 million bpd are exported.

Elsewhere, traders were eyeing developments in Nigeria, where the oil industry was facing a security crisis after separatist militants overran a pumping station and gunned down soldiers and workers on Sunday.

Although Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer, pumping around 2.6 million bpd, most Nigerians still live in crippling poverty, especially in the remote creeks of the delta.—AFP