Oil slightly higher in Asian trade

September 29, 2009 04:09:29 PM

• A⁺ 
• A^-
• |
• 
• |
• 
• |
• 

Oil was slightly firmer in Asian trade Tuesday, lifted in part by Wall Street's overnight gains, analysts said.

Prices were also boosted by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East after major crude producer Iran on Monday test fired missiles capable of reaching targets in Israel, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery was two cents up at 66.86 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for November delivery was five cents higher at 65.59 dollars a barrel.

"The gains on US equity markets aided oil market sentiment," analysts from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a report.

"Recent news reports of Iran test firing missiles added to concerns of geo-political risks, which was slightly supportive of the oil price," they said.

Iran, the world's third biggest crude exporter, on Monday test fired missiles it says can reach targets inside Israel and immediately drew swift condemnation from the United States and other Western nations.

Washington said the missile tests were "provocative" and urged the Islamic republic to agree to "unfettered access" to its newly revealed enrichment plant.

Washington and regional ally Israel have not ruled out a military option to stop Tehran's nuclear drive, which the West says is aimed at making nuclear weapons while Iran says it is solely for peaceful ends.

"Any consideration of an outbreak of hostilities immediately calls into focus the Strait of Hormuz, adjacent to Iran, through which flows 25 percent of the world's oil supply," said John Kilduff of MF Global.

"The escalation of tensions with Iran underlines how another element, geopolitics, of the many that caused prices to peak in 2008, can resurface suddenly," he warned.