NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Crude oil prices jumped to just 3 cents shy of $45 a barrel Monday on news that production in Iraq's main oil production center was stopped because of threats from Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's militia, re-igniting concerns about tight international supplies.
U.S. light crude traded at $44.83, up 88 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange around 1 p.m. ET, after setting a new record at $44.97 earlier in the session. This beat Friday's record of $44.77 that had been the highest price since the NYMEX launched oil futures in 1983.
London Brent crude also reached a record high $41.65 a barrel before easing to $41.48, up 85 cents.
"Pumping from the southern oilfields to storage tanks at Basra was stopped today after threats made by Al-Sadr," an Iraqi official told Reuters. "It will remain stopped until the threat is over," he said.
The official said militiamen threatened to sabotage production for the nation's state-run Southern Oil Company, based in Basra, and that the Gulf Basra terminal had enough supply to keep exports running for around two days.
Iraq has recently been exporting nearly 1.9 million barrels a day, but exports from Iraq's northern oil fields have operated sporadically since the U.S. occupation began last year. They have been closed because of attacks on the main northern export pipeline from the Kirkuk fields.
Sabotage attacks shortly before the U.S. handover of power to the interim Iraqi government have also cut exports sharply.
In Baghdad, the oil ministry came under shelling Monday after a previous barrage of mortar rounds injured one guard Saturday and damaged the building.
Yukos, Venezuela could drive prices
Russian bailiffs seized Yukos' main oil producing unit Yuganskneftegaz Monday, despite a Friday court ruling that a previous seizure was illegal, Interfax quoted the Justice Ministry as saying.
"Due to new circumstances -- insufficient funds in the accounts of the debtor YUKOS oil company -- a court bailiff issued an order on August 6 arresting its shares in Yuganskneftegaz," the news agency quoted a statement as saying.
The announcement did not immediately move crude prices.
Yukos, Russia's biggest oil-exporting firm, continues to battle bankruptcy due to a multi-billion-dollar tax debt case, which could halt its operations and exports. The oil company pumps 1.7 million bpd of crude, or two percent of global supply.
"No supplies will be stopped after August 10. We will continue to work as we have been working in the past because it is in the state's interest," Marina Kovshova, head of Russian state railways' marketing department, told Reuters.
And worries prevail that supplies from Venezuela, the world's No. 5 exporter, may be disrupted during the August 15 referendum on the rule of President Hugo Chavez.
A two-month strike by opponents of the leftist Chavez late in 2002 temporarily halted the OPEC producer's overseas sales and caused oil prices to spike.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls around half of the world's crude exports, is pumping at the highest levels since 1979 as it tries to stem oil's relentless price rise.
OPEC output is running at 30 million barrels daily and president Purnomo Yusgiantoro said last week that the group was ready to lift production by 1 to 1.5 million bpd if deemed necessary when ministers next meet.
The group is scheduled to meet in Vienna on September 15 to review output policy, but only Saudi Arabia has any significant spare capacity to increase supply.
The International Energy Agency, adviser to 26 industrialized nations on energy policy, said it was stepping up consultation with member countries on the issue of a possible release of strategic oil stocks.
"We are intensifying our communication," said Kenji Kobayashi, director of the office of oil markets and emergency preparedness.
"IEA countries have the ability to respond through the coordinated release of strategic stocks. We are carefully assessing the situation," he said.
-- from staff and wire reports
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