EM-100 IS THE POWER TOOL FOR THE JOB !!! Oil Prices Up on Nigerian Strike Threat Monday June 18, 12:54 pm ET By John Wilen, AP Business Writer Oil Prices Rise After Nigerian Labor Unions Threaten to Strike
NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil and gasoline futures rose Monday after Nigerian oil unions called a strike for this week, pushing crude prices past Friday's $68 close. Retail gas prices, meanwhile, continued to fall, despite analyst predictions Friday that gas prices would fall no further.
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Nigerian oil unions called a general nationwide strike to begin Wednesday in protest of a government price hike on automobile fuel. Also supporting energy prices were attacks on two Nigerian oil facilities by angry villagers and gunmen, which cut oil output.
"You've got kind of a double-whammy out of Nigeria," said Kevin Saville, managing editor for the Americas energy desk at Platts, the energy research arm of the McGraw-Hill Cos.
Nigeria was the third-biggest exporter of oil to the U.S. in March, behind Canada and Mexico, with an average of 1.35 million barrels a day, according to Energy Department statistics.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose 75 cents to $68.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for August delivery added 40 cents to $71.87 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.
Stocks of major airlines fell on the news of higher oil prices, sending the Dow Jones transportation average down 38.35, or 0.74 percent, to 5,138.63.
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