LONDON, Oct 8: The price of Brent crude oil reached a new record high here on Friday, as analysts warned a looming strike in Nigeria could drive US crude oil futures up to $60 a barrel.

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November reached a record summit of $49.30 in early deals in London, breaking the previous peak of $49.20 set on Thursday.

In late afternoon deals the contract was up 20 cents at $49.10. In New York, the price of reference light sweet crude for November delivery slipped nine cents to $52.58 a barrel in early trading.

US crude oil futures spiked to $53 a barrel on Thursday for the first time in the contract's 21-year history, showing a gain of about six per cent over the week and almost 60 per cent since the start of the year.

The leader of Nigeria's Labour Congress (NLC) said that a threatened nation wide general strike against rising fuel prices would begin Monday after talks with authorities collapsed.

Previous general strikes have done little to disrupt Nigeria's exports of around 2.6 million barrels of crude per day, but the latest action comes at a time when oil unions are already up in arms over planned job losses.

Investec Securities analyst Bruce Evers was even more bullish. "US oil prices will most likely be in the $60-70 price band next month," he said. Analysts said supply worries were having a magnified impact on prices because of concerns about unbridled consumption in the United States and Asia as well as the low level of commercial oil inventories.

"We kind of lose sight of the fact that this is a demand-led price run," said Wardell. Oil prices were expected to fall below $50 a barrel next year on expectations of smooth elections in Iraq, the president of the Opec said on Friday.

"In futures trading in New York, the price for 2005 is trending lower. This is interesting," Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on the resort island of Bali. -AFP