Oil prices jump on pipeline outage

Oil prices jumped on Tuesday after the shutdown of a North Sea pipeline knocked out significant supply from an already tightening market, while world stocks took a break from a three-day rally.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose above $65 a barrel - their highest since mid-2015 - after Britain's Forties pipeline was shut due to cracks as a cold snap sweeps the country.

US crude oil futures rose nearly 1 per cent to $58.51 a barrel.

The jump in Brent prices widened its premium to WTI prices to as much as over $7 a barrel , the highest premium since May 2015 and up from around $5 last week, making US oil exports more attractive.

While the jump in oil helped boost commodity-heavy European stock indices, it was not enough to offset weakness in bank stocks, pushing the pan-European STOXX index down 0.1 per cent in early trading.

There was a little more action in bitcoin, which was last up 1 per cent on the day at $16,598 on the Bitstamp exchange while its newly minted futures contract fell slightly to stand at $18,545.

Gold remained out of favour at $1,244.70 an ounce having suffered its biggest weekly drop since May last week.