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Oil hit a new record yesterday, supported by worries of supply disruptions in Nigeria and comments by the oil producers' organisation that it saw no need to increase production.
US light crude for May delivery rose US5c to US$116.74 a barrel, after briefly touching a new high of US$117.05 a barrel.
London Brent crude rose US6c to US$113.98.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries saw no need to raise oil production to counter high oil prices, its president said.
"No," said Chakib Khelil, who is also Algeria's Energy and Mines Minister, when asked by reporters if Opec would raise production. He added that raising production would have no impact on prices as the market was well supplied.
Khelil also said a previous output increase had failed to push prices down last year.
Separately, Opec secretary-general Abdullah al-Badri said oil prices could rise higher should the US dollar weaken further.
Oil prices have jumped 22 per cent since the start of the year, largely due to a tumbling US dollar, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and unrest in major oil exporter Nigeria.
A Nigerian rebel group said on Saturday it had sabotaged a major pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell and vowed to step up attacks on oilinstallations.
Officials at Shell, which is pumping 400,000 barrels a day below capacity in the Opec nation due to sabotage and security concerns, confirmed that a small amount of production had been delayed.
Workers at the French port of Marseille voted yesterday to suspend a strike against dock reforms, an official of the CGT union said, but a new 24-hour stoppage was planned for Thursday.
"We're looking more to irregular actions, less spectacular but which allow us to keep going for a longer time," said Pascal Galeote, secretary-general of the Marseille port workers section of the CGT.
The strike, which started on Friday, has blocked traffic at France's biggest oil port, Fos Lavera, and kept 20 ships at the quayside yesterday. Fos Lavera supplies crude to eight refineries in southeast France with a total capacity of 800,000 barrels a day.
"The spate of incidents has reminded the markets of the fragility of oil supplies," said David Moore, a commodities analyst at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
Comments from the US Government that it would not delay its plan to buy oil this northern summer for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve even if crude prices stayed above US$100 a barrel also provided underlying support for oil prices.
- REUTERS
