LONDON, Jan 24: Oil prices fell below $68 in New York on Tuesday, though losses were limited by lingering supply concerns despite Saudi Arabia’s offer to provide the market with extra crude, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, dropped 25 cents to $67.85 per barrel in pit deals.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for March delivery lost 11 cents to $66.05 per barrel in electronic trading.

On Monday, crude futures soared above $69 per barrel in New York for the first time in more than four months on supply disruptions in Africa’s biggest oil exporter Nigeria and tensions in Iran — the world’s fourth biggest producer of crude and second largest in Opec.

However prices fell on Tuesday “on profit-taking as top exporter Saudi Arabia promised on Monday that it would supply extra oil if needed”, analysts at the Sucden brokerage firm said in London.

“However falls are expected to be fairly limited as a result of supply concerns,” they added.

Amid concerns over global energy supplies, Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said in an interview with Indian television that the oil kingpin was ready to boost supplies to 11m barrels per day from 9.5 million.

On Monday, supply concerns caused New York’s main contract to strike an intra-day peak of $69.20 per barrel — the highest level since September 1, 2005 — before closing down 38 cents at $68.10.

“Nigeria and Iran are the main driving concerns,” said Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore.

Unrest in Nigeria has led so far to lost production of some 200,000 barrels of crude per day and this, coupled with Iran’s diplomatic wrangling with the West over its nuclear program, sent crude prices soaring over the past week.—AFP