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Oil steady near $65, Nigeria supports

LONDON - Oil steadied near $65 a barrel on Monday, pausing after a retreat sparked by easing concerns of a supply shortfall in the United States, the world’s top fuel consumer.

London Brent crude fell nearly 5 percent last week, partly because a US government report showed increasing stockpiles. Fresh attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry limited the price decline.

Brent, currently seen as more representative of global oil prices than US crude, was down 9 cents at $65.22 a barrel at 1054 GMT. US crude slipped 15 cents to $61.78.

Oil traders have shrugged off falling US gasoline stocks and violence in Nigeria has had a limited impact, possibly because investors are looking at other assets.

“When prices went down in the past we saw some investors come into the market to buy on the dips, but we haven’t seen it,” said Tetsu Emori, chief strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd.

“People don’t want to take huge long positions in the crude market... Other (commodity) markets are looking much brighter.”

Tokyo gold futures rose more than 2 percent to a two-month high and platinum futures hit a record high on Monday.

A fresh disruption to supply from Nigeria, Africa’s top exporter, prevented a larger decline in oil prices.

Villagers with sticks and machetes staged a protest at a Chevron oil production site in Nigeria on Monday, forcing the company to shut it down as a precaution, security sources said.

Chevron said on Monday the protest had hit 42,000 barrels per day of production although it expected a quick resolution.

Unrest and militant attacks on oil installations in other parts of Nigeria’s delta region have already shut down a quarter of Nigerian oil production, helping lift world prices.

A small fire at a gas control unit in Kuwait’s biggest oil field, Burgan, was extinguished on Monday and did not affect oil and gas production, state firm Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) said.