Oil prices rise on supply concerns

CRUDE oil in New York rose to its highest close this year after Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, said it will comply with OPEC production cuts.

Nigeria, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ sixth-biggest producer, is set to cut output by 142,000 barrels a day under agreements reached in 2006.

Occidental Petroleum, the fourth-biggest US oil company, said 120,000 barrels a day of output has been lost after a fire at its Elk Hills field in California. It’s the seventh-largest field on the US mainland.