(Recasts, updates prices, previous TOKYO)
* Up on Iran tensions, fears of Nigeria strike
* Kuwait to pump more next year
* Key events ahead include Fed meet, U.S. oil data
LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) - Oil rose for a third straight
session on Tuesday to more than $138 a barrel, boosted by a
rumoured attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, which was denied.
"This is just a rumour. No attack against Iran's nuclear
facilities has taken place," a senior Iranian nuclear official
said. []
U.S. crude for August delivery <CLc1> was up a $1.33 at
$138.07 a barrel by 1007 GMT, after settling up $1.38 on Monday.
It hit a record high of $139.89 on June 16.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> was up $1.31 at $137.22 a barrel.
Tension over Iran's nuclear programme has played a big part
in oil's rise to record levels near $140 a barrel.
The European Union this week imposed new sanctions on Iran,
including as asset freeze on its biggest bank.
Western powers suspect Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil
exporter, wants to make nuclear arms, but Tehran denies this.
Friday's New York Times quoted U.S. officials as saying
Israel, which is believed to have nuclear weapons of its own,
had carried out a military exercise, apparently as a rehearsal
for a potential bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities.
Analysts are worried heightened tensions between Iran and
the West could threaten the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow waterway
separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula through which roughly
40 percent of the world's traded oil flows.
NIGERIA STRIKE
Nigeria's senior oil workers union began a limited strike at
Chevron offices on Monday. The stoppage has not disrupted
production yet, but it has added to concerns about further
disruption to supplies from the OPEC nation, where militant
attacks shut 340,000 barrels of daily production last week.
[]
"The market is focusing on the immediate impact of this
Nigerian attack that reduced production," said Tony Nunan, risk
management executive at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.
Supply disruptions in Nigeria have helped push U.S. crude up
by more than 40 percent this year.
Kuwait, one of the few OPEC members with spare capacity,
will increase its oil output by 300,000 barrels per day starting
mid-2009, and would spend $55 billion on oil projects in the
coming five years, state news agency KUNA reported, citing Oil
Minister Mohammad al-Olaim.
Kuwait's pledge follows a meeting of top energy policy
makers in Jeddah at the weekend, where Saudi Arabia, the world's
largest oil exporter, said it would pump more oil.
The Saudi increase failed to dampen the market.
The dollar will remain in focus over the next two days as
markets wait for U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on interest
rates due on Wednesday.
The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates
unchanged, which could be bearish for the dollar and supportive
for the oil market, analysts said.
U.S. weekly data on crude oil inventories are also due on
Wednesday. Crude stocks are likely to have risen for the first
time in six weeks last week, as imports rose for the second week
in a row, a Reuters preliminary poll showed. []
The poll showed forecasts for a 200,000-barrel rise in crude
stocks last week, a 1.4 million-barrel gain in distillates and a
400,000-barrel rise in gasoline inventories.
(Reporting by Jane Merriman in London and Osamu Tsukimori
and Chikafumi Hodo in Tokyo)
