By Fayen Wong
SYDNEY, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Oil rose nearly a dollar and
hovered above $99 a barrel on Monday, bolstered by Iran's
warning that more U.N. sanctions would be "costly" to Western
powers, and after Turkey's incursion into northern Iraq.
U.S. light crude for April delivery <CLc1> rose 79 cents to
$99.60 a barrel by 0043 GMT, adding to Friday's 58 cents gain.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 66 cents to $97.67.
"Prices are influenced by fresh geopolitical concerns as
Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq in an offensive
against Kurd militants," David Moore, a resource analyst at the
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a note to clients.
"There is also a possibility that tensions surrounding
Iran's nuclear program may intensify."
Oil exporter Iran warned Western countries on Sunday that
they would be the ones to suffer if they pass a new U.N.
sanctions resolution on the Islamic Republic, raising spectre
that the world's fourth-largest oil exporter would cut crude
exports.
"Some Western powers are...choosing a wrong path and
passing resolutions against Iran will be costly for them,"
Javad Vaeedi, deputy chief nuclear negotiator, was quoted by
Iran's official news agency IRNA as saying. Vaeedi did not
elaborate.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report on
Friday that Iran has shown new openness about nuclear advances,
but not enough to prove the programme is not geared to bomb
making.
The United States, Britain and France have said that they
hope the United Nations Security Council will vote on a third
round of sanctions.
Oil's gain was also supported by Turkey's major attack on
Kurdish PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq, which has raised fears
that the offensive could further destabilise Iraq and disrupt
oil supplies.
Although the Turkish-Kurdish dispute has increased in
scale, analysts have played down its threat to oil supplies,
saying that the recent attacks are more illustrative of
political instability in the Middle East and are unlikely to
pose direct threats to oil flows in the region.
Iraq's state-owned Northern Oil Company said on Sunday
Iraq's oil exports to Ceyhan in Turkey will not be disrupted
[].
Oil surged to a record $101.32 on Wednesday, near the
inflation-adjusted high of $102.53 hit in April 1980, as supply
concerns and a rush of speculator money outweighed worries of
an U.S. economic recession.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is
unlikely to agree to a change in oil output at its meeting on
March 5, as high prices and concern about the economy balance
expectations for a seasonal demand fall, an OPEC delegate said
on Sunday []
Crude speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange
increased long positions sharply last week, according to data
from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released Friday.
Net crude long positions rose to 60,873 in the week to Feb.
18, compared with 39,933 in the previous week.
(Editing by Jan Dahinten)
