Benchmark crude for May delivery was up 4 cents to $105.01 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.88 to settle at $104.97 on Tuesday.

The April contract, which expired Tuesday, climbed $1.67 to end at $104.

In London, Brent crude was up 18 cents at $115.88 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.

Oil has jumped 24 percent since Feb. 14 as violent protests rock the Middle East and North Africa.

In Libya, fighting between rebels and government forces has halted most of the country's 1.6 million barrels a day of crude production. Investors expect that allied coalition military intervention on the side of rebels will likely prolong the shutdown of oil output from the OPEC nation.

U.S. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear said Tuesday that intelligence confirmed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces were attacking civilians in Misrata, Libya's third-largest city, and said the international coalition was "considering all options" there.

The market is factoring in a "virtual loss of the Libya's exports for an extended time period of at least six months," Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. The widespread unrest in the region will keep oil prices elevated throughout the spring and into the summer, it said.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Wednesday.

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil was steady at $3.08 a gallon and gasoline gained 1.5 cents to $3.02 a gallon. Natural gas added 3.2 cents to $4.29 per 1,000 cubic feet.