Oil and gas futures rose Monday as reports of new refinery outages in the United States countered news that Nigerian labour unions ended a strike on the weekend.

Analysts said traders started buying after hearing of problems at two refineries on the weekend, which revived concerns about domestic gasolene supplies. Oil had started the day dropping more than US$1 a barrel and pulling other energy futures lower in response to the strike's end.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose four cents to settle at US$69.18 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gasolene for July added US1.59 cents to settle at US$2.3025 a gallon. August Brent crude rose US0.18 cents to settle at US$71.36 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures for July rose US0.44 cent to settle at US$2.0424 a gallon while July natural gas prices fell US0.19 cents to US$6.94 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Strike worries

Futures traders began the day selling on news that Nigerian labour unions called off a strike aimed at overturning a government fuel price hike, ending a four-day work stoppage.

The unions accepted a government proposal to raise gas prices by four cents a litre - half of what the government wanted - in exchange for a government promise to hold prices steady for a year. Energy futures prices rose sharply last week on worries the unions would follow through on their threat to shut Nigeria's oil industry down in the end, oil supplies were not affected.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and one of the top overseas suppliers to the United States.

-AP