Oil rises to near $103 as Libya conflict escalates

Oil prices rose to near $103 a barrel Friday as Libyan government and rebel forces dug in amid fierce fighting while protests restarted in the capital Tripoli, raising investor fears of protracted oil output cuts.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was up 82 cents at $102.73 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 32 cents to settle at $101.91 on Thursday. In London, Brent crude for April delivery was up 86 cents to $115.65 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Analysts said Thursday's fall was due to mainly to profit taking. «But the Libya crisis is still keeping physical markets highly volatile,» said a report from JBC Energy in Vienna.On Thursday, rebels bolstered defenses around Libya's second-largest oil refinery in Brega while government fighter jets bombed nearby the Mediterranean port city. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's regime apparently has stepped up its recruitment of mercenaries from other African countries, with an official in neighboring Mali saying that 200 to 300 men have left for Libya in the last week.