Oil price rises, exceeds Nigeria's benchmark by $4

World oil prices rose for a third straight day today with traders brushing aside news of a rocket attack by jihadists on a gas plant in OPEC energy producer Algeria, the AFP reported.

The development sees the price of Brent crude, against which Nigeria's oil is priced, rise to $42.29 dollars, $4.29 higher than the country's proposed benchmark of $38 for the 2016 budget.

According to the AFP, with confidence growing that the world's biggest crude producers will hammer out a deal to curb output, investors piled back into the commodity after they toyed with 13-year lows last month.

Qatar's energy minister, Mohammed al-Sada, confirmed this week that exporters from within and outside the OPEC cartel will meet April 17 in Doha, stoking hopes of an agreement to ease a global supply glut.