By Alexander Kwiatkowski Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose after attacks on production facilities in Nigeria and Iraq and as the U.S. dollar gave up gains against the euro, making oil more attractive to investors. Nigeria’s main rebel group claimed its first assault on oil infrastructure in the country in five months, while Iraq shut its northern export pipeline to Turkey after an explosion damaged the link. A weaker U.S. dollar encourages investors to buy commodities as a hedge against inflation. OPEC, meeting in Angola tomorrow, said it expects to hold production targets. “All of a sudden, geopolitical tensions are back in focus,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, a VTB Capital Plc analyst in London. “Sentiment is fairly positive and these concerns will limit the downside in prices.” Crude oil for February delivery, the most actively traded contract, was at $74.98 a barrel, up 56 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:02 p.m. London time. The January contract, which expires today, traded 20 cents higher at $73.56 a barrel. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND, said Dec. 19 it attacked a pipeline in the southern oil region used by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. The “warning strike” at Abonemma in Nigeria’s southern oil region was to protest against the lack of progress in talks with the government since President Umaru Yar’Adua was hospitalized in November, Jomo Gbomo, a spokesman for MEND, said in an e-mailed statement over the weekend. Ceyhan Pipeline In Iraq, the pipeline supplying the Ceyhan oil export terminal was sabotaged around 8:30 p.m. local time Dec. 19, Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said yesterday. Brent crude oil for February settlement rose as much as 79 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $74.54 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract was at $74.52 a barrel at 12:02 p.m. London time. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has a consensus on “no change” in oil production quotas for the bloc’s meeting tomorrow, its secretary-general, Abdalla el-Badri said. “After this meeting, it might become clear that OPEC can do nothing at the moment to influence prices,” said Eugen Weinberg, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “They should cut production, but they don’t want to give the market the idea that it is oversupplied.” OPEC, supplying about 40 percent of the world’s oil, is meeting amid expectations that crude demand will rebound in 2010 after a two-year slump as the global economy mends. Officials from Algeria, Kuwait, Libya and Qatar have said they want the group to maintain current quotas. Iran and Nigeria have also signaled they do not expect any change at this meeting. OPEC ‘Comfortable’ “At the moment we are comfortable with prices,” OPEC President and Angolan Oil Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos said in an interview with state radio. “Everything indicates that we will maintain the present situation,” when OPEC ministers meet tomorrow. Crude futures climbed 5 percent last week in New York, the most in two months, and have gained 64 percent this year. Prices jumped after Iranian troops occupied an oil field in a disputed border region with Iraq. Iranian troops withdrew from the well in the East Maysan field after an armed confrontation at the deposit, Iraqi government officials said today. To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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