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Oil rose above $96 today, bolstered by expectations that US government data would show crude stocks falling for the seventh consecutive week, and as fresh violence in major oil exporter Nigeria revived supply concerns।

US light crude for February delivery rose 47 cents to $96।45 a barrel.

Oil prices rose nearly 58% last year, the biggest annual gain this decade, rallying strongly in the fourth quarter to touch a record high $99.29 a barrel on November 21 as the US dollar fell and swollen US oil stockpiles thinned.
US crude oil inventories are expected to have fallen 1।8 million barrels last week, the seventh week of decline in a row, as refiners boosted utilisation, according to industry analysts।

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, were forecast to have increased by 300,000 barrels after three weeks of decline, the survey showed.
The weekly oil inventory report will be released tomorrow, a day later than usual due to the New Year holiday।

Suspected militants attacked two police stations, a luxury hotel and a night club in Nigeria's oil city Port Harcourt yesterday, killing 18 people, police said.
Frequent attacks by militant groups since February 2006 have already driven thousands of foreign oil workers from the oil-rich Niger Delta and cut the nation's oil exports by about 20%.

Fears of political instability in Pakistan in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's killing have also supported oil prices।