Oil prices fell this morning after reaching an 11-month high late last week.
Light post-weekend profit-taking was limited by concerns over US fuel supplies, Nigerian crude shipments and North Sea maintenance.
London Brent crude eased 60 cents to $75.02 a barrel after briefly surging above $76 the previous session. The all-time record high for Brent is $78.65, reached in early August 2006.
US crude fell 70 cents to $72.11 a barrel.
Although news that Nigerian kidnappers had released British toddler Margaret Hill helped alleviate anxiety over stability in the world's eighth-largest exporter, analysts saw little immediate hope for ending 18 months of violence.
Kidnappings in Nigeria have intensified in the past 18 months, and attacks on the oil industry have shut in 661,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Nigerian production.
Oil prices have also risen to a series of multi-month highs on expectations that rising demand from US refiners returning from extensive maintenance could rapidly deplete inventories.
Last week, inputs to US refineries rose in every part of the United States, except for the West Coast, US government data showed.
Opec ministers blame US refinery bottlenecks and geopolitical tensions for the surge in oil prices, not a shortage of supplies.
Expectations that summer maintenance will reduce supplies of crude from North Sea oilfields have also helped boost prices.