Bloomberg reported that the Sharara field in the west of Libya was closed after protesters gathered at the site demanding the country's prime minister step down. The closure came after the nearby El Feel deposit for oil was halted for the same reason.
Brent, the global crude benchmark, settled Monday’s trade up $1.46, or 1.3%, at $113.16 per barrel. Brent gained 8.7% last week, after two back-to-back weekly losses that left it down by 13%.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, the benchmark for US crude, finished up $1.26, or 1.2%, at $108.21 per barrel. WTI rose 8.8% last week, after a 13% tumble over two previous weeks.
"It was another risk to the oil supply that rallied the oil market," Phil Flynn, analyst at Chicago’s Price Futures Group, said. Flynn noted, however, that China’s continued lockdown of Shanghai city over COVID-19 concerns raised questions about energy demand in the No. 2 oil importing country.
Libya’s crude production has averaged just over 1 million barrels per day this year, down from almost 1.2 million in 2021, media reports said. The drop is costing the country millions of dollars in lost revenue.
S&P Global reported the 70,000 barrels-per-day El Feel oil field was closed on April 16 after protests demanding the ouster of the country’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Libya’s National Oil Corporation, or NOC, said on its website that "production has stopped completely" as of April 17, making it "impossible" for it to meet contractual obligations.
The NOC has called on all sides to preserve what is left of the "already dilapidated and worn out infrastructure" after years of civil war.
EU governments said last week the bloc's executive was drafting proposals to ban Russian crude, although diplomats said Germany was not actively supporting a US-style immediate embargo.
But those comments came before tensions grew in the Ukraine crisis over the weekend, with Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol opposing a Russian offer to lay down their weapons on Sunday. Russia said its forces have almost completely seized the city.
The International Energy Agency has warned that roughly 3 million barrels daily of Russian oil could be shut in from May onwards due to sanctions, or buyers voluntarily shunning Russian cargoes.
Russian oil output has continued to slide in April, declining by 7.5% in the first half of the month from March, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday.