Still, milder-than-normal U.S. temperatures and skepticism that OPEC members are committing to production cuts helped moderate the price increase.
Light sweet crude for January delivery rose 98 cents to $59.78 a barrel in late morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
On Friday, the December crude contract had closed at $55.81 a barrel, the lowest settlement for crude since June 15, 2005.
"The market is due for a bounce, and we're getting some of that," said Tom Bentz, a broker at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York. "Throw in the Alaskan news, and here we go."
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline is flowing at 25 percent of its normal capacity due to high winds, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said late Monday, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Also, there have been shutdowns at ExxonMobil Corp.'s refinery in Baytown, Texas, the country's biggest at 562,500 barrels a day, and Citgo's 156,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Corpus Christie, Texas.
However, analysts don't expect oil prices to jump too high, as doubts remain that OPEC members are reducing oil exports as planned. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which is scheduled to meet in Nigeria on Dec. 14, announced an output cut of 1.2 million barrels a day last month. The cartel may make further cuts at its next meeting.
In an interview with Nigeria's This Day newspaper, OPEC President Edmund Daukoru acknowledged that some group members weren't complying with the cut, confirming market suspicions.
In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures rose 4.37 cents to $1.7145 a gallon, unleaded gasoline rose 4.32 cents at $1.5975 a gallon, and natural gas futures rose 3.7 cents to $8.056 per 1,000 cubic feet.
January Brent at London's ICE Futures exchange climbed 92 cents to $59.90 a barrel.
Traders were also positioning themselves ahead of the weekly U.S. oil inventory reports, to be released Wednesday. Analysts are expecting inventories of gasoline and distillates _ which include heating oil and diesel fuel _ to drop.
Because the New York Mercantile Exchange will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday, trading has been light this week. With fewer players in the market, price swings are often larger than they would normally be.
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