By GREGORY MEYER
February 5, 2008; Page C12
Crude oil futures gained to close above $90 a barrel yesterday after traders reconsidered a selloff last week and reacted to fresh violence in Nigeria’s tumultuous, oil-rich southern region.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up $1.06, or 1.2%, to $90.02 a barrel.
Analysts searched for definitive reasons behind the rally. One explanation was that front-month crude’s 3% pullback Friday on the back of economic fears went too far.
“It looks like we were retracing what probably was an overdone selloff on Friday,” said Addison Armstrong, an analyst at TFS Energy Futures in Stamford, Conn. “There’s really a lot of competing news out there right now. I’m not sure why the bulls are holding sway.”
Support for prices came from Nigeria, a major oil exporter that since 2006 has halted more than half a million barrels a day of production amid struggles with rebel groups.
In the latest sign of strife, a spokesman for rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, yesterday claimed responsibility for a weekend attack on a military houseboat stationed at a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline hub. A firefight left three soldiers and an unknown number of assailants dead, the Associated Press reported, though Shell said production wasn’t affected.
Reports that Turkish warplanes had hit some 70 Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq also unleashed supply jitters. Iraq now produces about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, or 3%, of world oil supply, some of which is exported through Turkey.
Sustaining a recent reversal of earlier trends, the Nymex April crude contract once again settled higher than the front-month March contract, at $90.07 a barrel, suggesting concerns about immediate supply problems are taking a back seat.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires see U.S. oil stockpiles increasing in weekly data due out tomorrow, which is among the “strong arguments for the downside,” Mr. Armstrong said.
GOLD: Prices fell on long liquidation that began Friday when the metal was unable to take out its record high from earlier in the week. Most-active April gold lost $4.10 to $909.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the Nymex.
COFFEE: Futures surged on ICE Futures U.S. to a 3 1/2-month high as pre-placed buyer orders were uncovered. Support also came from strength in the London market, which reached 10-year highs. ICE March settled 3.60 cents at $1.4270 a pound.
Write to Gregory Meyer at [email protected]
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
