Oil markets were buoyed by a weakening greenback, analysts said. "The US dollar has weakened against the euro... so the financial factors therefore support oil rising," said Victor Shum, senior principal of Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore.

The euro was trading at USD 1.4880 at 0155 GMT from 1.4852 late Friday in New York.

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Indications from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that they were not going to cut production quotas in their December 22 conference was also a factor pushing prices up, Shum added. "The chatter out of OPEC is that they are happy with the current pricing, there's going to be no increase in production," he said.

Saudi Arabia stated over the weekend that oil prices were perfect and the global market was stable as Arab heavyweights in the OPEC cartel appeared united in their support for maintaining production quotas.