The general strike, which began in Nigeria on Monday, has driven the world oil prices to new record high points, nearing 54 dollars in New York.
The strike helped by an intensifying industrial dispute in Norway pushed the price of reference light sweet crude for November delivery up by 32 cents to reach a new summit of 53.63 dollars a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
It was a new high in the contract�s 21-year history and beat a peak of 53.40 dollars reached last Friday. After hitting a new record, the contract traded at 53.52 dollars.
Besides, London Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in November hit 50 dollars a barrel for the first time in the contract�s 16-year history, rising by 51 cents to 50.22 dollars in early afternoon deals. It later traded at 50.15 dollars.
The new records �are above all due to worries about the strikes in Norway and Nigeria�, Societe Generale analyst Frederic Lasserre was quoted in a report.
The worry, he explained, was that both countries were producers of light sweet crude, highly sought after ahead of winter in the northern hemisphere, especially by the US.
Low in sulphur, light sweet crude is easier and cheaper to refine into petrol, gasoil and heating oil.
The strike by labour unions in Nigeria under the auspices of Nigeria Labour Congress is in protest against rising fuel prices, resulting from full deregulation of the downstream oil sector under President Olusegun Obasanjo�s economic reforms.
Nigeria has remained a worry after repeated threats to its production, starting with a warning by Niger-Delta rebels two weeks ago followed by a two-day oil unions strike at leading producer Royal Dutch/Shell Group late last week.
Little disruptions in oil production or even the fear of it in any of the major oil producing countries now impact the prices of crude oil as the spare production capacity among OPEC members has been eroded this year by strong demand growth from China and elsewhere.
�The main driver these days is the fact that world spare capacity is so low,� said David Thurtell at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. �It�s never been this low and that means that we�re in uncharted territory.�
About 475,000 barrels per day of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil production remains out of commission, nearly four weeks after Hurricane Ivan struck the region.
A third of that is expected to be resumed by the end of this month, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said on Friday. But operators say some output may be out until next year.
Saudi Arabia, the only country with significant spare capacity, sought at the weekend to dispel worries over the waning spare supply cushion, reiterating that it would keep a reserve of up to 2 million bpd capacity to meet future growth.
�There is no shortage of oil and there will be no shortage of oil, and we are willing to meet demand as it rises,� Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters.
Naimi also repeated that the kingdom could immediately boost production by 1.5 million bpd, but oil traders say the mostly dense, high-sulphur crude, which are as much as $10 higher than for heavy grades, will do little to cool headline prices.
�There�s plenty of sour crude around, but not much sweet,� said Thurtell.
Other members of OPEC were already starting to talk about the possibility of raising the cartel�s formal output ceiling, although this would make little difference to real production levels.
The 10 members of the group excluding Iraq are pumping around 28 million bpd, above a new quota of 27 million bpd that comes into effect from November.
