Light, sweet crude for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rebounded from earlier losses to $116.80 a barrel in New York, up 74 cents. Brent crude futures rose 95 cents to $115.29 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

AP reports: The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in Nigeria said its fighters hit a pipeline late Thursday in southern Rivers State - the fourth pipeline the group has attacked in the past week. MEND said in a statement that the pipeline attacked Thursday belongs to a Royal Dutch Shell PLC joint venture.

Shell said earlier this week that it had shut in about 170,000 barrels a day of Nigerian production due to one of the earlier attacks. In Europe, BP PLC is also considering shutting down its 700,000 barrel-a-day Forties pipeline system if a strike continues at a U.K. refinery.