Georgian fighting pushes up crude

The heavy fighting in Georgia has pushed the price of crude oil up by more than a dollar per barrel. Georgia does not produce oil, but the world's second-largest pipeline passes through southern Georgia as it takes oil from Azerbaijan to Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipe can move up to 1.2m barrels of oil every day.

Fears that Russian actioin in Georgia could jeopardise the supply caused US light, sweet crude to rise $1.16 to $116.36 a barrel, while London's Brent crude gained $1.45 to $114.78.

BP has a 30 per cent stake in the pipeline, which was intended to make the West less reliant on Russia for oil. A spokesman for BP said the pipeline had not been damaged in the fighting which erupted after Georgian troops moved into the Russian-backed breakaway republic of South Ossetia.