Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rebounded from a five- month low to trade above $67 a barrel in New York as an oil workers' union in Nigeria, Africa's largest producer, reiterated it will engage in a three-day strike.

Workers at the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, or Pengassan, plan a ``warning strike'' beginning Sept. 13, said Sunny Onyemachi, assistant general secretary of the union.

Oil supplies from Nigeria could be further disrupted if the strike grows, said Rob Laughlin, a senior broker at Man Financial Ltd. The Pengassan group ``may be joined by'' more unions, he said.

Crude oil for October delivery was up 13 cents at $67.45 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:32 p.m. in London. Brent crude oil for October settlement rose 17 cents to $66.70 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange.

Oil companies operating in Nigeria have suffered from attacks on infrastructure, kidnappings of employees and theft. Militant action and other damage have cut output this year by as much as 715,000 barrels a day.

Nigeria's two main oil worker unions pledged to strike for three days beginning Sept. 13 and may extend the walkout unless security in the Niger delta region improves, Lumumba Okugbawa, acting general secretary at Pengassan, said Aug. 31. Onyemachi said today there are no plans for an indefinite strike.

Iran Review

Crude oil also rose as the U.S. pushed the United Nations Security Council to agree on sanctions against Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer.

Diplomats from the UN Security Council and Germany met in Berlin yesterday to decide whether to punish Iran for refusing to stop uranium enrichment by an Aug. 31 deadline. They will discuss the matter again on Sept. 11, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said today in Berlin. The U.S. wants a draft resolution as early as next week, Burns said.

Russia today said international consultations will continue in an effort to persuade Iran to observe UN demands.

Tomorrow's meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani is an important opportunity for the Islamic republic to show its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday.

Solana said today there will be no UN sanctions against Iran as long as talks continue, Agence France-Presse reported.

OPEC Quotas

OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, is likely to keep production at current levels when members meet next week, increasing the chances crude will stay above $65 a barrel for the rest of the year.

That's the unanimous view of 18 oil traders, brokers and analysts surveyed on Aug. 31, who predicted ministers will vote to maintain quotas.

Officials from Iran and Nigeria said in the past three weeks that OPEC members, apart from Iraq, should keep a target of 28 million barrels a day. Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp., said today that OPEC should maintain production levels.

The Sept. 11 Vienna meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries comes as high oil prices curb consumer spending from Australia to the U.S., prompting calls by politicians to reduce reliance on OPEC crude.

``I think we could see high prices through the winter'' depending on geopolitical developments, the U.S. hurricane season and winter weather, said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank in New York. ``By the time we get to the end of 2007, I think $60 oil or something near that is more likely than $70 to $80.''

Gasoline Price

Gasoline for October delivery rose 0.53 cents to $1.647 a gallon, near a six-month low, in after-hours trading in New York. The average U.S. price for unleaded gasoline fell to $2.683 per gallon on Sept. 7 from $3.035 the month before, according to the American Automobile Association, the nation's largest driver organization.

Tropical Storm Florence, an ``unusually large'' system that's forecast to become a hurricane tomorrow, poses an increasing threat to Atlantic shipping lanes.

The center of Florence was about 830 miles (1,340 kilometers) southeast of Bermuda just before 5 a.m. Miami time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in an online advisory. The system was moving west-northwest and was expected to miss the Gulf of Mexico, source of a quarter of U.S. oil output

``Not having a hurricane season like last year, oil could still fall a bit,'' said Giulio Baresani Varini, a fund manager at Novagest Sim in Milan.

Last year's hurricane season was the most active on record. Its 15 hurricanes included Katrina and Rita, which damaged oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and shut as much as 30 percent of U.S. refining capacity.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 8, 2006 09:33 EDT