LONDON--Crude oil futures were higher Monday, with the renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict raising concern about the stability of future supply.
"Geopolitics have once again moved in to support the oil price just when fundamentals were lining up to push prices down," PVM said in a note.
At 1124 GMT, the front-month January Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up 74 cents, or 0.7%, at $ 109.69 a barrel. The front-month January Nymex crude contract was trading up 98 cents, or 1.1%, at $87.90 per barrel.
"Luckily for the oil bulls, there is nearly always a micro or macro ally at hand, and last week two made an appearance," PVM said.
In the North Sea, one of Statoil's Troll platforms was shut down for four days after corrosion was found in tanks used to treat gas. Production on the Troll C platform resumed overnight Saturday. Production issues in the North Sea, benchmark Brent's home, tend to support Brent futures.
There is no imminent supply disruption from the Israel-Gaza fighting, but geopolitical tensions in the volatile region will add to jittery Brent trading this week, said VTB Capital analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
"Given no further escalation to the conflict, we still expect a small pullback for both benchmarks," HE SAID.
At 1124 GMT, the ICE's gasoil contract for December delivery was up $17.50, or 1.9%, at $938.00 per metric ton. Nymex gasoline for December delivery was 99 points, or 0.4%, higher at $2.7200 per gallon.
-Write to Konstantin Rozhnov at konstantin.rozhnov@dowjones.com
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