Oil price hits 2016 high on ebbing supply, softer dollar

Oil prices hit their highest in eight months on Tuesday, buoyed by the dollar nearing one-month lows and by falling Nigerian oil output after a spate of attacks on infrastructure.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 67 cents on the day at $51.22 a barrel by 1135 GMT, having hit an intraday peak of $51.29 earlier in the day, their highest since October.

U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 rose 60 cents to $50.29 a barrel, having touched a fresh 2016 peak of $50.37, their highest since October last year.

“With Brent staying above $50, oil is on an upward momentum with the restart of French refineries that were shut on strikes and pipeline attacks in Nigeria,” said Kaname Gokon at brokerage Okato Shoji in Tokyo.

Preliminary work got under way on Monday to restart three of Total’s (TOTF.PA) French oil refineries, stopped as part of nationwide strikes.

Crude futures have nearly doubled since January when they hit their lowest since late 2003 buoyed by supply outages in Canada, Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria.

Nigeria’s Bonny Light crude output is down by an estimated 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) following attacks on pipeline infrastructure, according to one source. Agency report