LONDON, Dec 23: World oil prices dipped on Friday as trading wound down before Christmas and as a pipeline fire was brought under control in major energy producer Nigeria.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, dropped 48 cents to $57.80 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, the price of

Brent North Sea crude for February delivery shed 46 cents to $56.09 per barrel in electronic trading.

“Market activity should be subdued today as many traders are already off for the Christmas holiday,” analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said.

Traders were keeping a watch over Nigeria, where Royal Dutch Shell said that a fire on its oil pipeline was brought under control overnight.

World oil prices had closed lower on Thursday after US reserves of natural gas fell by less than expected during a recent cold snap, traders said.

Prices had been up for much of the day as Royal Dutch Shell halted deliveries in Nigeria after the deadly pipeline explosion in Africa’s biggest oil producer.

“Short-term events like this which are unpredictable can drive a high price floor for crude prices,” Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz, said Friday.

“That is why we are seeing pricing in the high 50s even though the market is well-supplied” with oil products, he added.

Crude prices were catapulted to record heights this year by hurricanes that ravaged Gulf Coast energy installations in the United States.

Oil futures hit historic high prices in nominal terms in late August following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, striking $70.85 per barrel in New York and $68.89 in London.

They have since pulled back owing largely to mild weather across the northern hemisphere in the run-up to winter.—AFP