Oil falls from record highs as supply worries ease

By Janet McGurty

LONDON (Reuters) - European oil prices fell from record levels over the week as Nigerian supply worries eased and North Sea production returned to normal rates.

After touching a record high of $117.56 last Friday, London Brent crude oil was down about 5 percent on the week, as the dollar rebounded, pulling down the energy complex including carbon and natural gas prices.

In Nigeria, Exxon Mobil Corp. said it resumed its 800,000 barrel per day output after settling an 8-day strike with a Nigerian oil union.

Shell's Nigerian production remains constrained by infrastructure problems, running at 160,000 bpd or about half of its 2007 output.

The strike at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland early in the week shut down half of the U.K. oil output, a fifth of the natural gas supply and cut supply of diesel fuel.

The uptick in record high British pump diesel prices caused a small protest at Shell's Stanlow refinery but wholesale prices began falling by the end of the week as arbitrage cargoes from the U.S. Gulf Coast were offered on the market.

Gasoline supplies were curtailed by a boiler problem at Chevron's 210,000 bpd Pembroke refinery, but prices fell on soft demand in the U.S.

Benchmark barges shed as much as $100 a tonne --or almost 10 percent of their value -- during the week, despite a heavy schedule for cargoes heading to the U.S.