ENERGY : Saber Rattling Pushes Oil Prices Up $2.68 a Barrel
Oil prices shot up nearly $3 per barrel Wednesday after British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher warned that war could be imminent in the Persian Gulf.
The surge gained momentum when a confidante of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said the countdown for confrontation had begun, resurrecting anxiety among oil traders that the flow of petroleum supplies would face disruptions.
Traders were also responding to reports that Secretary of State James A. Baker III had given Iraqi President Saddam Hussein an ultimatum for vacating Kuwait, though Baker denied the reports.
Light, sweet crude closed $2.68 higher at $35.31 per barrel for December delivery contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil had opened 28 cents lower at $32.35 a barrel, then moved ahead by more than $3 to the day’s high of $35.45 before settling back.
Contracts for delivery in later months all moved higher, many by the daily limit imposed by the exchange of $1.50 a barrel.
The escalating words of war on Wednesday injected new life into a crude market that had been sluggish for more than a week.
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