Oil prices pause after sharp falls

Oil prices edged higher on Monday, pausing for breath after coming under pressure over the past month from rising production in the United States, Libya and Nigeria, which has taken the edge off an OPEC-led initiative to support the market by cutting production.

Brent crude futures were trading 17 cents higher at $47.54 per barrel by 1015 GMT.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were 15 cents higher at $44.89 per barrel.

Both benchmarks are down some 13 percent since late May, when producers led by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries extended a pledge to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) for an extra nine months.

Analysts said a steady rise in US production, along with output increases in Libya and Nigeria, which are exempt from the Opec cuts, were undermining the Opec-led effort in the near term.

"There is no reason to be overly optimistic at the moment," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch.

Libya's oil production has risen by over 50,000 bpd to 885,000 bpd after the state oil firm settled a dispute with Germany's Wintershall, a Libyan oil source told Reuters on Monday.

In May, OPEC supplies jumped on the back of recovering output from Libya and also Nigeria.