Oil to boil again on Middle East unrest: Survey
16 Apr 2011
Crude oil prices may increase on Middle East unrest speculation and with Saudi Arabia reducing production, says a new Bloomberg News survey,
Prices have risen 18 per cent this year as unrest spread from Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria.
Meanwhile, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said yesterday in Washington that Iran might be helping the Syrian government to suppress political protests. According to a Human Rights Watch report dated 12April, at least 130 people had been killed in the Syrian crackdown.
Oil producing countries in the Middle East and North Africa accounted for 36 per cent of global oil production and held 61 per cent of proven reserves in 2009 according to BP Plc, which publishes its BP Statistical Review of World Energy each June.
In a telephone interview with Bloomberg, John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi, said that Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had cut it crude oil output in April by 30,000 barrels per day.
Crude oil for May delivery was down $3.13, or 2.8 per cent, to $109.66 a barrel this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile, futures are up 28 per cent from a year ago.
The oil survey has a track record of correct projections 47 per cent of the time since it commenced in April 2004.
