LONDON: Brent crude oil rose to $60 per barrel on Monday, supported by concerns about disruption to output from Libya, but a global supply glut kept prices nearly 50 percent off their peak for the year.
An oil official said Libya is producing scant 128,000 barrels of oil a day from fields connected to the far eastern port of Hariga, as fighting kept its largest ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, shut.
Output from the OPEC member nation has struggled with port blockades and protests, slashing output from the 1.6 million barrels a day it produced prior to the 2011 ousting of leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A fire sparked by a rocket attack last week on oil storage tanks at the port of Es Sider marked an escalation in damage to the country’s oil infrastructure.
Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro in Amsterdam said there is tension in Libya, but liquidity is very thin so not much is needed to move oil prices.
