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Oil prices rise above US$133 a barrel
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-05-26 22:09

Oil rose above US$133 a barrel Monday on persistent worries about global petroleum supplies and the outlook for the US dollar.

Motorists pump petrol in Kuala Lumpur May 22, 2008. Oil rose above US$133 a barrel Monday on persistent worries about global petroleum supplies and the outlook for the US dollar. [Agencies]

Reports of an attack by militants on an oil pipeline in Nigeria, one of Africa's largest oil exporters, also helped boost prices.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery was up 98 cents at US$133.17 a barrel in electronic trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange by the afternoon in Europe. The contract rose US$1.38 to settle at US$132.19 a barrel on Friday.

Nymex floor trading will be closed Monday for Memorial Day and it also was a holiday in Britain, resulting in lower trading volume than usual.

In London, July Brent crude futures rose US$1.13 to US$132.70 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The dollar has weakened over the last week after a modest recovery, and investors will be watching economic data out of the United States to be released over the next few days for further clues about the health of the world's biggest economy.

"The dollar's been swinging down again," said Mark Pervan, senior commodity strategist at Australia & New Zealand Bank in Melbourne, and that's "going to sway sentiment."

Oil and other hard commodities are seen as hedges against a weakening greenback and inflation. Also, a weak dollar, the currency of international oil trade, makes petroleum products less expensive to Asian and European buyers.

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