LONDON, Feb 18: World oil prices rose on Monday as worries over tight supplies overshadowed concerns that a US recession could dent demand from the world’s biggest energy consumer, traders said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, won 54 cents to $96.04 a barrel in electronic deals.

Brent North Sea crude for April delivery gained 31 cents to $94.94.

US floor trading was shut on Monday for the President’s Day public holiday in the US.

“Oil is caught between the opposing pulls of the Venezuelan/ Exxon issue and continuing fears that the US downturn will dent demand,” said Bank of Ireland analyst Paul Harris.

Prices had surged last week as the market was stoked by lingering fears over ongoing supply problems in Nigeria and Venezuela, traders said.

“Oil futures were trading higher (on Monday), with anxiety over supply fundamentals outweighing economic fears about the world’s largest economy,” added Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.

“We had more supply warnings from Venezuela over this weekend, with President Hugo Chavez saying on Sunday that his country could sue Exxon Mobil for unpaid taxes.”

However, Chavez moderated his earlier threat to cut off oil deliveries to the US, saying such a drastic measure would only be taken if Venezuela was attacked.

“We will not stop shipping oil to the United States, this is not in our plans,” Chavez said during his regular Sunday radio show “Alo, presidente”, adding that it could still happen if the US attacked.

“In that case, we will have to make a decision about not giving the United States a single drop of oil,” the president said. “But at the moment, we want to keep on helping the American people.”

—AFP