LONDON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Oil held around $109 a barrel on Tuesday, supported by robust demand for heating fuel in top consumer the United States and supply disruptions in Libya.
As well as the cold spell, oil drew support from a weak U.S. dollar, which was near a six-week low against a basket of major currencies, supporting commodities such as oil that are priced in dollars.
Brent crude was trading at $109.06 a barrel, down 12 cents, by 1008 GMT. U.S. crude was up 36 cents at $100.66. There was no settlement on Monday as U.S. markets were shut for the Presidents Day holiday.
The U.S. chill "is likely to keep heating demand at a high level and spark a further decline in the already severely diminished stocks of heating oil and natural gas", said Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
Supply disruptions were also supporting prices, particularly Brent. Libya's oil production has dropped to 390,000 barrels per day, some 70,000 bpd less than last week, as protests disrupted flows from a large oilfield, El Sharara.
"Even though Libya's ongoing supply shortfalls are mostly priced in by the market, the news that El Sharara flows were partly blocked by protesters following several threats earlier last week still underpinned Brent prices," said Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London.
Prices drew support last week from an International Energy Agency report showing that inventories in the developed world had posted their steepest quarterly decline since 1999 in the last three months of 2013. Reports on U.S. oil inventories will be released later this week.
On Tuesday, Iran and six world powers will hold talks on a long-term deal for Tehran to limit its nuclear programme and the West to ease international sanctions.
Progress in resolving the decade-long dispute would weigh on oil prices as the lifting of sanctions would allow the OPEC producer to export more crude and add to global supply.
Both Iran and the United States have played down expectations of reaching an agreement. (Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by Jane Baird)
