LONDON, Dec 8: World crude prices rose strongly on Friday after threats of further attacks to oil facilities in Nigeria and ahead of next week's output meeting by Opec, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, climbed 74 cents to $63.23 per barrel in electronic deals before the official opening of the US market.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for January delivery surged $1.08 to $63.65 in electronic trading.
Sucden analyst Michael Davies said there was concern about further attacks in Nigeria.
A militant group in southern Nigeria, notorious for previous hostage-takings, claimed responsibility on Friday for Thursday's attack on an Agip oil facility in which four foreigners were kidnapped and at least one person killed.
Fighters of the Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), attacked and destroyed the Agip installation in Brass in the Niger delta, the group said in an e-mail statement to AFP here.
They threatened to launch further attacks on Nigeria's oil industry in “the following days”.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer and world's fifth-biggest exporter, derives more than 95 per cent of its foreign exchange from oil, but unrest in the delta in recent months has caused the country's daily output, normally some 2.6 million barrels, to fall by about 25 per cent.
The market was gearing up for Opec's meeting in Nigeria next Thursday.
There is continued concern over whether OPEC is going to cut their production quota again, Global Insight analyst Simon Wardell said.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is likely to propose a further production cut of 1.0-1.5 million barrels per day to support prices, Indonesian Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Friday.
At its most recent meeting in Qatar in October, Opec approved a cut in its output quota of 1.2 million barrels per day to stem falling prices, which have dropped from record highs above $78 in July and August.
There is continued talk that they will be cutting production... the story is what will Opec do next week? said Stephen Rowles, an analyst with CFC Seymour.—AFP