Oil prices increased slightly on overseas tensions.
Oil prices dropped last week from record highs but increased slightly Monday after militants in Nigeria struck two oil pipelines, Xinhua reported.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said that overnight it attacked a pipeline in Kula and another one in Rumuekpe, both Shell Petroleum Development Co. pipelines.
In an e-mail message, MEND also threatened to attack and damage the Chanomi Creek pipeline and others over the next month.
The message said "heavily armed" MEND fighters had attacked the pipelines, and Shell spokesmen said the extent of the damages are being verified.
Nigeria is a large oil exporter, but violence has repeatedly halted production and transport, causing price instability and reducing the country's oil production by 25 percent over two years.
BP and Shell set to announce record profits.
Record-high crude oil prices and growing demand from developing nations have led to oil and gas firms, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell, bringing in huge profits.
The two firms are expected to announce nearly $16 billion in combined profits when companies issue their regular stock updates this week, U.K. business newspaper The Journal reported.
Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of Unite, a trade union, again called for a windfall tax, but in 2007 BP paid more than $15 billion in taxes worldwide and Shell reportedly paid more than $18 billion.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward told The Journal the company is putting its newfound billions to good use by working to increase efficiency at its refineries and exploring and drilling for new oil and natural gas sources.
But oil and gas consumers in the United Kingdom are getting fed up as oil prices and gas prices have increased consumer prices of electricity and gasoline.
Weather outlook grim for oil producers.
While Hurricane Dolly bypassed oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico last week, keeping oil prices stable, oil firms have not always been so lucky, the U.K. Times Online reported.
In 2005 hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut down Gulf of Mexico oil production, pushing prices up, and forecasters are predicting several more hurricanes before the end of the year that could cause some serious damage. There are four months left in the traditional hurricane season.
While oil production is threatened by hurricanes and tropical storms, the Times points out that the storms benefit the planet by mixing up the air and the water.
Hot air is pushed away from the tropics, the rain sometimes breaks droughts, and strong wind gusts knock down older, dead or damaged trees, giving way to new ones.
In the water, oxygen and nutrients are mixed from the top to the bottom of the ocean and vice versa. Phytoplankton are churned as well, and when they are brought to the surface, they feed fish and soak up carbon dioxide. When the micro-organisms eventually sink, that carbon is kept away from the atmosphere, the Times reported.
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Closing oil prices, July 28, 3 p.m., London
Brent crude oil: $125.98
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $125.87
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