Oil prices advanced today, despite OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia's pledge to ensure sufficient supplies, as raging violence in Libya, Africa's fourth biggest crude producer, sparked global supply jitters.
Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April rose $1.75 to $113.55 a barrel. New York's light sweet crude for April, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), gained $1.34 cents to $98.31 a barrel.
Analysts said that as the violence rages on in Libya, there are mounting fears that the country's supply disruptions will be prolonged and that other producers in the immediate vicinity will suffer similar outages due to political unrest.
They said foreign companies that have evacuated their employees and halted their operations may be reluctant to restart production if the political and security environment in Libya remains unsettled.
The West heaped pressure on Libya's Moamer Kadhafi today after loyalists tried to retake a key city near Tripoli following a show of defiance by the veteran leader.
Libya's opposition said it was resuming exports from eastern oilfields now under its control which had been suspended during the unrest, and had loaded a tanker with one million barrels of crude for China.
Brent oil had soared close to $120 last week on the back of heightened fears about supply disruption, due to a wave of unrest in Libya and other countries in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest producer, said yesterday that it was committed to oil market stability after Libya's output dropped due to the violent unrest in the nation - which produces a light, sweet crude highly prized by the market.
The Saudi government said the cabinet had met and discussed the protests shaking Libya 'and their repercussion on oil production in that country'.
Saudi Arabia 'is committed to the stability of the market' and to ensuring that oil supplies remain available, a statement said, adding that the kingdom hoped Libya's production returns to normal soon.
