North sea shutdown pushes oil towards $133

Worries about oil shortage due to StatoilHydro closing down oilfields with a capacity of 138,000 barrels pr. day, has pushed oil above $133 in the early trading on Monday. Oil spill being the cause of the shutdown, StatoilHydro now has reopened two of their oilfields but the Statfjord A field with a capacity of 19,000 bpd is still shut down.

Worries regarding unrest in Nigeria has also been supporting the price of oil on Monday spurred by new attacks on oil instillations. Mexico has also reported decreased flow of oil from its largest oilfield, the lowest in 12 years. These worries and a lower dollar have all been increasing the interest in the oil, pushing the prices higher.

OPEC maintains their view that high oil prices are due to speculative interest, not supply and demand factors. Though worries about lower supplies has been quoted time and again as the main factor for higher prices, less fund presence with less open interest of large investors, has spurred speculations that possible there will be some profit taking affecting the oil market soon.

Due to holidays in both the US and UK, trading is expected to be low with the floor trades closed in these countries.