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Oil prices near 9-month high on Iraq crisis

Oil prices stayed near a nine-month high Friday on concerns that the Iraq crisis would spread and disrupt the country's oil production. US oil prices rose 2 cents to $106.07 per barrel while Brent crude oil slipped 12 cents to $114.94.

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Hasan Jamali/AP/File
Oil men work in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain, at sunset last week. The Iraq crisis has put upward pressure on global oil prices.
  • By Associated Press

The price of oil was little changed with global crude a near nine-month high Friday, following days of fighting between Iraqi soldiers and Islamic militants for control of the country's biggest refinery.

Iraq's government was desperately trying to hold off the extremists at the Beiji oil refinery and by late Thursday the two sides held different parts of the refinery, which extends over several square kilometers of desert some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad.

The facility has a capacity of 320,000 barrels a day, according to Platts, accounting for a quarter of Iraq's refining capacity. While all its output is used domestically, a prolonged shutdown could force the energy producer to import oil products to keep up with the country's needs, cutting into global supplies.

The price of U.S. benchmark crude for August delivery rose 2 cents to $106.07 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, slipped 12 cents to $114.94 a barrel in London, after setting a nine-month high the day before.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.6 cent to $3.09 a gallon.

— Natural gas rose 0.4 cent to $4.59 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Heating oil fell 0.4 cent to $3.06 a gallon.

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