Oil rose towards $58 a barrel today amid colder weather and declining distillate supplies in the United States.
US crude rose 31 cents to $57.61 a barrel earlier. London Brent crude moved 37 cents higher at $57.09.
Uncertainty in Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest exporter, where oil unions considered whether to call a strike also supported prices, and the latest deal by Opec oil exporters to lower supplies took effect yesterday.
Oil gained on Wednesday after a US government report showed inventories of distillates, which include heating oil, fell more than expected last week.
Today, Nigeria's two main oil unions kept the industry guessing whether they would call a strike next week over insecurity in the oil-producing Niger Delta.
Besides colder weather, output cuts from Opec, source of more than a third of the world's oil, have helped boost prices this week.
Opec has pledged to reduce supply by half a million barrels per day from February 1st in addition to a 1.2 million-bpd cut that took effect from November