NYMEX oil tops $69 on Iran, Nigeria concerns - Yahoo! News

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures surged above $69 on Monday to their highest since September, when hurricanes hit U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil facilities, pushed up by tension over
Iran' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Iran's nuclear research program and unrest in Nigeria.

New prompt contract NYMEX March crude briefly touched $69.20 a barrel, the highest since September 2. It was trading at $69.01 in ACCESS electronic trading by 0157 GMT, with 3,906 contracts changing hands.
NYMEX February crude settled up 1.52 at $68.35 at its expiry on Friday. It briefly touched $68.80, the highest price since September 2.
"Most likely the market will test $70 again because we have not seen improvements in Iran and Nigeria," said Naohiro Niimura, vice president of the derivatives business at Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo.
Adding to concerns, the main pipeline to supply natural gas from Russia to Georgia and Armenia was knocked out by two explosions on Sunday. Officials said it would be at least two days before gas started flowing again.
NYMEX crude struck a record high at $70.85 in late August 2005 as hurricane Katrina crippled oil output from the Gulf of Mexico, the center of the oil industry of the United States.
It has surged more than $8, or 13 percent, from the beginning of this year.
In London on Friday, March Brent crude settled at $66.43 a barrel, gaining $1.20, or 1.8 percent.
IRAN STANDOFF
Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter, said on Friday it was moving its foreign assets to shield them from possible UN sanctions in its nuclear standoff with the West and it said
OPEC' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> OPEC should cut output.
The Financial Times carried an interview with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Monday, who said the country would resume industrial-scale uranium enrichment if it was referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear standoff with the West.
The United States and the
European Union' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> European Union want the
International Atomic Energy Agency' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the UN Security Council at an emergency meeting on February 2.
The council has the power to impose trade or diplomatic sanctions, though no swift action to punish Iran was deemed likely.
Iran also said Friday it sought an OPEC output cut of 1 million barrels per day effective from April, arguing that markets were oversupplied by 2 million bpd.
In Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, more than 220,000 bpd of crude production had been shut by Friday because of repeated militant attacks on oil producers in the country.
The disruption in Russia followed the country's spat with Ukraine over natural gas supplies earlier in this month, triggering rises in international oil prices.
Russia briefly cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in the contract dispute. Ukraine has said Moscow was using its huge energy resources as a political weapon.
NYMEX February heating oil stood 0.18 cent up at $1.8690 a gallon. On Friday, it settled up 7.03 cents, or 3.9 percent, at $1.8672 because of speculation that cold snap in Europe and Asia could limit import availabilities.
NYMEX February gasoline stood 0.75 cent up at $1.8245 a gallon. On Friday, it settled 4.10 cents higher, or 2.3 percent, at $1.8170