IEA blames record oil price jump on low stocks

PARIS (Reuters) - Lack of stock building ahead of the summer driving season in the U.S. is the main reason behind the record jump in oil prices seen on Friday, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Monday.

Oil surged by an unprecedented $10.75 on Friday, when crude hit a record $139.12 amid frenetic buying triggered by the slump of the dollar and comments by an Israeli minister of a possible attack on Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer.

But the IEA said the underlying reason behind the price jump was the oil market's tightness.

"We're in the final month of the second quarter and we still haven't seen any sign of a stock build and this is normally the time when stocks build for the summer months," Lawrence Eagles, head of the Oil Industry and Markets Division at the Paris-based IEA, told Reuters.

The inevitability of an attack on Iran was also a key factor, Eagles said.

"I think as a result of that we saw a surge of a combination of risk management buying and a reluctance to sell," he added.

Eagles also brushed off the possibility that speculators could be behind the record oil price.

"The fact that we can't see a stock build says very clearly that this is not a speculative issue," he added.

The IEA, adviser to 27 industrialized countries on energy policy, is due to release its monthly oil market report on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Muriel Boselli; editing by James Jukwey)