ATTENTION - UPDATES prices, ADDS analyst quotes ///
SINGAPORE, April 28, 2008 (AFP) - World oil prices hit an intraday record near 120 dollars a barrel on Monday after the shutdown of a major North Sea pipeline added to supply worries, analysts said.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, touched 119.93 dollars a barrel in electronic deals and was later trading in Asia 83 cents higher at 119.35 dollars.
The contract closed 2.46 dollars higher at 118.52 dollars a barrel on Friday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent North Sea crude for June delivery rose 93 cents to 117.27 dollars a barrel after a rise of 2.00 dollars to 116.34 dollars on Friday, when the contract hit a record intraday peak of 117.56 dollars.
"Supply worries have pushed oil prices higher since Friday, and will remain the dominant influence on prices in the near term," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
Britain on Sunday shut down a North Sea pipeline which supplies 40 percent of its oil and gas, sparking panic-buying of petrol after a strike at a major refinery.
The start of a two-day walkout by around 1,200 workers at the Grangemouth refinery, west of Edinburgh, in Scotland, forced the neighbouring Forties pipeline to close down at the same time, operator BP said.
The pipeline brings more than 700,000 barrels of crude oil ashore every day and supplies Britain and international markets. It cannot function without power and steam from Grangemouth.
Prices rallied on Friday as the Grangemouth plant was shut down ahead of the strike, which is over pensions.
The disruptions in crude supplies are "potentially quite significant", said Moore. "The loss of crude oil from Scotland is quite material in the context of the oil market."
Alan Duncan, the British Conservative party's industry spokesman, warned that the closure would hit world oil prices.
"The interdependence of our North Sea oil production and the refinery... has implications for global oil prices," he told Sky News television.
"So world oil prices have gone up and we're going to see local oil prices and petrol prices going up."
In Africa's biggest crude producer, Nigeria, the most prominent armed group in the southern oil-producing region on Friday sabotaged a supply pipeline belonging to Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell.
Shell spokesman Tony Okonedo confirmed the attack but said he could not comment on the extent of the damage.
Several supply pipelines owned by Shell and Chevron have been destroyed in recent weeks.
Royal Dutch Shell is the largest oil operator in Nigeria, accounting for about half of the country's 2.1 million barrels per day output. The company has seen a wave of attacks on its facilities in recent months.
Violence in the Niger Delta has reduced Nigeria's total production by a quarter in the past two years.
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