Oil prices edge higher as BTC pipeline reopens

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Oil prices edged higher Monday in choppy, thin trade as the major Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline resumed operations after repairs from a fire and fresh unrest in Nigeria's oil-rich south.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for October, rose 52 cents to close at 115.11 dollars a barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for October ticked up 11 cents to settle at 114.03 dollars.

Oil futures prices had shed more than six dollars a barrel Friday after gaining a similar amount Thursday, in see-sawing trade that analysts said reflected little support from fundamental factors.

"Perhaps the most convincing rationale is one we have been espousing that the market has reached a familiar impasse, in terms of the increasingly compelling...