Oil prices soar to $117

Oil prices rose to a record over $117 a barrel as jitters over oil supplies from Nigeria outweighed a rally in the dollar and fears of an economic slowdown in China.

US light crude was up $1.96 at $116.82 a barrel by 2:51 pm (1851 GMT) after earlier hitting a record $117 a barrel.

London Brent crude was up $1.04 at $113.47.

Oil prices have more than quadrupled since 2002 as supply struggles to keep up with booming demand, especially in China and other emerging economies.

"The bulls still hold the cards," said Mike Fitzpatrick of MF Global in New York.

A Nigerian rebel group said it had sabotaged a major oil pipeline operated by Shell and vowed to step up attacks on oil installations in the Opec nation.

Shell officials have not confirmed if any facilities had been damaged.

Rebel groups have been attacking oil installations in the Niger Delta since 2006.

Shell currently pumps 400,000 barrels per day below capacity in Nigeria due to sabotage and security concerns.

Strikers at the major southern French oil port of Fos-Lavera vowed to remain on picket lines through Saturday.

The strike trapped 23 vessels, including four crude oil tankers and six refined products tankers in the port.

A similar strike March lasted 17 days and forced four oil refineries with 603,000 bpd of combined capacity to curtail operations, helping spur a late spring rally in European diesel prices.

Strong demand for diesel fuel in emerging markets has been offsetting weakness in US oil demand, analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a research note released Friday.

Goldman expects US crude oil futures to average $105 a barrel this year and end the year at $115 a barrel, driven by tight distillate supplies and continued increases in the cost of building new oil production capacity.

Oil had fallen as low as $112.72 overnight after the dollar rallied against other major currencies as Citigroup , the biggest US bank, delivered better than expected quarterly results.

A sharp fall in China's stock market on Friday spurred concerns over a possible economic slowdown in China, the world's second largest oil consumer.

China's stock market fell nearly 4% to a 12-month closing low as the biggest stock, PetroChina slid below its October initial public offering price in Shanghai.