Oil prices held firm above $73 a barrel, following reports of oil pipeline attacks in major exporters Iraq and Nigeria over the weekend, and as cold weather in the United States and Europe raised the prospect of increased fuel demand.
US crude futures for January delivery, in their final day of trading before expiry later Monday, rose 66 cents to $74.02 a barrel after settling up 73 cents on Friday.
The more actively traded February contract was at $74.86. In London, Brent crude was up 33 cents at $74.08.
Gains were limited by thin trade during a holiday-shortened week and ahead of Tuesday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Luanda, Angola on Tuesday.
Nigerian militants said on Saturday they had carried out their first attack on an oil pipeline since the government offered them amnesty in October ahead of peace talks, which have faced delays. The alleged attack on a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline was not immediately confirmed.
‘The pipeline news is certainly something we'll be monitoring. The Nigerian attack isn't confirmed, but this raises questions about whether we'll see stability there, or we'll go back to four pipeline attacks every month,’ said Tim Evans of Citi Futures Perspective in New York.
An Iraqi pipeline linking Kirkuk to Turkey's Ceyhan port stopped shipping its typical daily volume of 500,000 barrels of crude late Saturday. Iraqi officials said they suspected sabotage of the pipeline, which was unlikely to resume shipments until later this week.
Tomorrow's OPEC meeting caps a year of recovery for oil prices, which have more than doubled since the cartel set strict quota cuts in the depths of the economic crisis 12 months ago.
In January the cartel enforced total OPEC cuts of 4.2 million barrels a day, which helped prices more than double from lows around $32 in December. Several OPEC ministers have said the current price of oil - which has been hovering around $75 a barrel - is comfortable for its 12 members.
The market, meanwhile, shrugged off a border dispute between key oil producers Iran and Iraq, traders said.
