Crude rises as greenback heads the other way

Crude oil rose for a third day as the US dollar dropped, enhancing the appeal of commodities as an inflation hedge, and a labor strike threatened to deepen production losses in Nigeria.

A white-collar workers' union continued a strike against Chevron Corp's local unit for a second day in Nigeria, where attacks last week cut output by 300,000 barrels a day. OPEC members besides Saudi Arabia have no intention of raising output to bring down near-record prices, Secretary General Abdalla El- Badri said in Brussels yesterday.

"The euro is recovering against the dollar after some bearish data yesterday, driving oil's gains this morning," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at Sucden (UK) Ltd. in London. "There's also bullish support from the attacks and strikes in Nigeria."