World oil prices inched higher on Friday as traders covered their positions before a long weekend for the Christmas break.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, added US$0.15 to close at US$58.43 a barrel.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for February delivery gained US$0.14 to finish at US$56.69 a barrel.
PHOTO: AP
In light pre-holiday trading, prices had earlier been down as a pipeline fire was brought under control in Nigeria, Africa's biggest energy producer.
"The market is facing some seasonal pressure, but given the violence of the decline and the impending long weekend, I would not be shocked by a short-covering rally into the close," AG Edwards analyst Bill O'Grady said just before the close.
Traders were keeping a watch over Nigeria, where Royal Dutch Shell said that the fire on its oil pipeline was brought under control overnight.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo had Thursday declared a state of alert in the oil-rich Niger Delta after at least eight people were reported to have died in an explosion that set the pipeline ablaze on Tuesday.
Shell has said that unknown assailants attacked its pipeline near the main oil city Port Harcourt, resulting in a major spill and fire that slashed production by about seven percent of Nigeria's total crude export.
"Short-term events like this which are unpredictable can drive a high price floor for crude prices," said Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz.
"That is why we are seeing pricing in the high 50s even though the market is well-supplied" with oil products, he said.
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