LONDON, Feb 21: Oil prices soared in New York on Tuesday, mirroring sharp gains made in London a day earlier owing to supply disruptions in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest producer of crude.

The New York oil market had been closed on Monday for the Presidents’ Day public holiday in the United States.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, surged $1.25 to $61.13 per barrel in electronic trading.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery eased 16 cents to 61.38 dollars per barrel.

New York crude futures were higher (Tuesday), catching up from yesterday when the US markets were closed, analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said in London.

Daruis Kowalyczk, a Hong-Kong based senior investment strategist with CFC Seymour, noted that New York’s surge was a delayed reaction to what happened over the weekend.

In London on Monday, crude futures had risen almost 3.0 per cent as weekend unrest in Nigeria slashed output in the country.

On Tuesday Nigerian authorities hunted for nine foreign workers being held as “human shields” by rebel fighters.

The nine oilmen — three Americans, a Briton, two Egyptians, two Thais and one Filipino — were seized on Saturday by separatist guerrillas during an attack on the energy giant Shell’s Forcados oil terminal.

Damage to the terminal and surrounding pipelines, combined with fears for the safety of other workers, has forced the firm to cut production by 455,000 barrels of oil per day, 18 per cent of Nigeria’s total output, the firm said.

Including losses from previous attacks, Nigeria has halted production of 601,000 barrels per day, equivalent to 25 per cent of the country’s output.

Nigeria, the world’s sixth-biggest exporter of oil, produces light, sweet crude, which is easier and cheaper to refine than heavy, sour crude, produced by oil kingpin Saudi Arabia.

The global oil market currently has spare capacity of roughly 1.5 million barrels per day, according to market analysts.

That would be insufficient to compensate for a loss of total production in Nigeria, which stood at 2.4 million barrels per day in January.

The market was also keeping an eye over Iran, whose nuclear standoff could lead to a disruption of the country’s oil exports according to analysts.

Russia has said it hopes to persuade Tehran to create a joint enterprise that will enrich uranium for Iran on Russian territory, enabling Iran to restore a moratorium on enriching uranium at home.—AFP