Oil OK despite tensions -- analyst

LONDON, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The ability of global players to pump more oil creates a market buffer to compensate for trouble in the Iraqi and Nigerian oil sectors, market analysts said.

There are varying reports of the level of Iranian military activity at an oil well located along the vague Iran-Iraq border. Iranian forces last week seized a well near the al-Fakkah oil field in Maysan province, claiming it was located inside Iranian territory. The official Iran-Iraq border remains unsettled following a 1980s war between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Nigerian militants with the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta during the weekend hit an oil pipeline ran by Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron, its first such attack since it announced a cease-fire during the summer.

The tensions come as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries anticipates extra capacity to reach roughly 7.5 million barrels per day in 2010, a 10-year high, The Wall Street Journal reports.

That spare capacity is roughly three times what Iraq pumps currently. Michael Wittner, the London head of oil research at Societe Generale, said OPEC activity is a buffer for international tensions.

"There's more than enough capacity out there to deal with these situations we've seen," he said. "It's a very different oil market we're in right now."