Mumbai: Crude oil rose to a record $118.05 a barrel on fears of supply disruption following a strike in the UK and production cuts in Nigeria.

The 200,000 bpd Grangemouth refinery in Scotland has begun shutting down ahead of a two-day strike planned for Sunday while Royal Dutch Shell Plc had reported suspension of 169,000 barrels of daily production after last week's attacks in Africa's largest producer.

West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery rose to $118.05 a barrel in New York trading following news that unions planned to strike at the Scottish refinery that receives shipments of North Sea Brent crude.

The contract later eased back to trade at $117.67, up 19 cents from yesterday's close.

In London, North Sea Brent crude for June delivery was trading up 7 cents at $114.50, having earlier touched a new high of $115.03.

Brent crude for June settlement rose as much as 62 cents, or 0.5 per cent, to a record $115.05 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract traded at $114.53 in the afternoon.

Nigeria, the fifth-largest exporter to the US last year, produces low-sulfur crude prized by refiners because of the proportion of high-value gasoline it yields. The country pumped 1.96 million barrels a day of crude in March, down from 2.4 million barrels a day at the end of 2005 amidst increasing militant attacks.

The oil price rally, however, comes against the backdrop of a 1.6 million barrels rise in supplies at 313.7 million barrels in the week ended April 18.

China, meanwhile, stepped up imports to a record 4 million bpd of crude in March and quadrupled diesel imports to 494,192 tonnes ahead of the summer Olympics, amidst fears over stretched supplies.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said there is no shortage of supplies in the market. However, OPEC plans to increase production capacity by 5 million bpd by 2012, its secretary general Abdulla Salem El-Badri said at an international energy forum in Rome.