Oil prices jump on positive data

Published: June 30, 2009

LONDON (AFP) - Oil prices rallied Monday on positive economic data in the eurozone and Japan, while traders kept an eye on simmering tensions in crude producer Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report that the world may escape an oil supply crisis for the next five years because a slow recovery from the economic downturn would hold down growth of demand.
In late afternoon London trade, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August gained 1.78 dollars to 70.70 dollars a barrel.
New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for August, won 1.87 dollars to 71.03 dollars.
Crude prices gained “following some positive data from Japan and the eurozone and news of another attack in Nigeria,” said Sucden analyst Nimit Khamar in London.
Japan’s industrial output rose for a third month running, matching the fastest pace in 56 years, as the world’s number two economy claws back from its worst recession on record, data showed Monday.
Japanese manufacturers moved swiftly to idle production lines after the global economic downturn sent their exports plunging. Having succeeded in reducing their bloated stockpiles, they are now ratcheting up output again.
Production rose 5.9 percent in May from the previous month, matching April’s revised growth, which was the strongest since a record 7.9 percent increase in March 1953, according to the trade and industry ministry.

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