* Oil hits record over $147 a barrel
* Potential supply disruption from Nigeria, Brazil
* Iran tests more missiles in the Gulf
(Updates prices; changes dateline from LONDON)
NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped $5 to a
record high above $147 a barrel on Friday amid growing worries
of threats to supplies from Iran and Nigeria and a strike by
Brazilian oil workers next week.
The strong early gains were trimmed later in the day,
however, as dealers focused on U.S. economic turmoil that has
already triggered a significant slowdown in oil consumption in
the world's biggest energy user.
U.S. crude <CLc1> rose $3.25 to $144.90 a barrel by 1827
GMT, after climbing as high as $147.27 earlier in the day. It
rose $5.60 on Thursday in a late burst of buying activity.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> was up $2.41 at $144.44 a barrel.
"The market is just so sensitive today over Iran, Nigeria,
Brazil," said a floor trader on the New York Mercantile
Exchange, where U.S. oil futures trade. "But you are also
seeing a big slide on stock market prices and this is driving
some fears to oil traders."
A spate of missile tests by Iran, the world's
fourth-largest oil exporter, in the past two days -- against a
backdrop of rising tensions with Israel and the United States
-- has left the oil markets worried.
Iran has threatened to strike back at Tel Aviv, as well as
U.S. interests in a key oil shipping route, if it is attacked
over its nuclear program, which Israel and the West fear is
aimed at making weapons.
Adding to geopolitical jitters, the main militant group in
Nigeria's oil-producing region said it was abandoning a
cease-fire to protest against a British offer to help tackle
lawlessness in the region.
Rebel attacks on oil infrastructure in Nigeria, the world's
eighth-biggest exporter, have been partly responsible for the
nearly 50 percent rise in prices this year.
And workers at Brazil's Petrobras <PETR4.SA><PBR.N> will
launch a five-day strike next week that would affect all 42
Campos basin offshore platforms, which account for more than 80
percent of Brazil's daily output of around 1.8 million barrels,
a union official said. []
Oil prices have risen seven-fold since 2002 amid surging
demand from China and other developing economies. Investors
also have flocked to oil and other commodities recently as a
hedge against rising inflation and a weak dollar.
Concern in the United States that Fannie Mae <FNM.N> and
Freddie Mac <FRE.N>, the nation's largest mortgage financing
providers, could run short of capital added to inflation
worries by reducing the chances of an interest rate hike this
year by the U.S. Federal Reserve, some analysts said.
[]
Oil prices have continued to rise despite efforts by top
exporter Saudi Arabia to raise production to its highest rate
in three decades in an effort to tame oil prices.
Qatar Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah told Reuters on
Friday that he saw no demand for the additional crude that
Saudi Arabia had pledged to pump.[]
(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede and Richard Valdmanis in New
York; Santosh Menon in London and Felicia Loo in Singapore;
Editing by Walter Bagley)
