(Releads, adds strike over at Grangemouth refinery, updates
prices)
By Fayen Wong
PERTH, April 29 (Reuters) - Oil fell towards $118 on
Tuesday after hitting a record a day ago as the Grangemouth
refinery in Scotland reopened from a two-day strike that had
shut down a pipeline that carris about half of Britain's crude
supply.
U.S. light crude for June delivery <CLc1> fell 50 cents to
$118.25 a barrel by 0722 GMT, but was still within sight of
Monday's record high $119.93 a barrel.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 62 cents to $116.12.
"The refinery was expected to reopen on Tuesday and it has
with no new surprises, so there is some profit-taking going
on," said Melbourne-based Mark Pervan, a senior commodities
analyst at the Australian & New Zealand Bank.
Workers at the Grangemouth refinery returned to work on
Tuesday after a two-day strike which closed the plant and the
700,000 barrel per day (bpd) Forties North Sea oil pipeline, an
official at the UNION trade union said. []
The closure of the refinery and the pipeline, which carries
about half of UK's North Sea crude output, had helped drive oil
to Monday's record, taking this year's gains to 25 percent.
Ineos, owner of the Grangemouth refinery, has said it would
take up to three weeks to return the 200,000 bpd refinery to
normal operations, but the union has said full output could be
restored within a week to 10 days.
BP <BP.L> has said the Forties pipeline, which relies on
the Grangemouth refinery for power, could then be back in
operation within 24 hours but might take a few more days to
resume full flow.
Analysts said oil prices could slide further this week as
investors pull out funds from the energy sector to invest in
the U.S. dollar, which could get support from expectations the
Federal Reserve would trim funds rate to 2 percent and signal a
desire to hold rates for the time being [].
Supply disruptions in OPEC member Nigeria have also aided
oil's rally.
Exxon Mobil says it has shut virtually all its Nigerian
output, close to 800,000 bpd, due to a five-day-old workers'
strike, [] while Niger Delta rebels said an April
24 pipeline attack had shut down a further 350,000 bpd of
production by Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>.
A previous bombing raid had hit 169,000 bpd of Shell's
Nigeria output, the company said last week.
All told, the Nigeria and North Sea outages together
represent more than 2 percent of world crude oil production.
Despite oil soaring to near $120 a barrel, the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which produces
more than a third of the world's oil, has refused to pump more,
reiterating that the market is adequately supplied.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil blamed high prices on the fall
in the dollar and said he could not rule out prices rising to
$200 a barrel.
(Editing by Jonathan Leff)
