Oil markets rally

London : Oil rose on Tuesday, after Libya said loadings of crude at a key port had been suspended, offseting an earlier dent to the price caused by evidence of the inexorable growth in US oil output.

All loadings at the Libyan oil export port of Zawiya, which exports crude from the 308,000-barrel per day El Sharara field, have stopped due to a strike, a Libyan website said.

Brent crude futures were last up 11 cents on the day at $65.06 a barrel by 1017 GMT, up from an earlier low of $64.67, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 17 cents at $61.53 a barrel.

Both crude benchmarks dropped by around one percent on Monday after the US Energy Information Administration said output from the shale basin would hit a new record high in April.

“Libyan oil loadings have been suspended, that’s why the market is rallying at the moment,” PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said.