Oil prices reached new highs to around $45 a barrel Monday after an Iraqi oil official said output was stopped for security reasons at key southern oil fields. While oil in storage was still being loaded onto tankers, analysts feared the market could lose more than 1.5 million barrels a day by the end of the week, The AP.
A senior official with Iraq's oil company said the southern oil fields stopped pumping oil Monday after Shiite fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to target the oil infrastructure in Basra, a southern port. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
