Oil rises above $99 on Iran warnings
FTSE bounces backAlthough the Turkish-Kurdish dispute has increased in scale, analysts have played down its threat to oil supplies, saying that the recent attacks are more illustrative of political instability in the Middle East and are unlikely to pose direct threats to oil flows in the region.
Iraq's state-owned Northern Oil Company said on Sunday Iraq's oil exports to Ceyhan in Turkey will not be disrupted.
Oil surged to a record $101.32 on Wednesday, near the inflation-adjusted high of $102.53 hit in April 1980, as supply concerns and a rush of speculator money outweighed worries of an U.S. economic recession.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is unlikely to agree to a change in oil output at its meeting on March 5, as high prices and concern about the economy balance expectations for a seasonal demand fall, an OPEC delegate said on Sunday.
Crude speculators on the New York Mercantile Exchange increased long positions sharply last week, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released Friday.
Net crude long positions rose to 60,873 in the week to February 18, compared with 39,933 in the previous week.
(Editing by Jan Dahinten)
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