Oil prices were mixed in Asian trade today as investors weighed the euro zone's mounting debt woes with the prospect of a disruption to Middle East supplies, analysts said.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in July was up 48 cents at $91.34 per barrel while Brent North Sea crude for July shed three cents to $107.08 in the afternoon.
Markets also recoiled on fears that Spain - the euro zone's fourth largest economy - would follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal and ask for a bailout after yields on its bonds shot up Monday.
The rise comes amid investor concerns about the state of the country's banking sector after one of its biggest lenders, Bankia, asked for $24 billion in state aid.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said the banking troubles would have no impact on efforts to trim the public deficit and denied that it had undermined confidence in Spanish sovereign debt.
Meanwhile, investors are also keeping close watch on the situation in Iran, after the Islamic republic and Western powers failed to reach an agreement on Tehran's nuclear programme, which is thought to mask a nuclear weapons push.
Despite the offer of incentives by the West, Tehran has refused to suspend enrichment of uranium to 20%, insisting that it has the right to do so for peaceful purposes.
Iran has threatened to disrupt Middle East oil supplies if it is slapped with further sanctions by the West, while its arch-enemy Israel has not ruled out launching a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear facilities.
