World oil prices rose on Tuesday, reversing three days of losses, as traders anticipated a weekly US energy report would show falls in US crude stockpiles.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, added 64 cents to close at 57.98 dollars a barrel. The contract expired Tuesday.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for February delivery inched up six cents to 56.17 dollars a barrel.

Players on the oil market often turn cautious ahead of Wednesday's release of the weekly US inventories report by the Department of Energy. The report was expected to show falling stockpiles of US crude.

Analysts predicted US crude stocks would have fallen by 1.3 million barrels during the week to Dec. 16.

Distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, should have dipped by 800,000 barrels, according to consensus forecasts.

But the market expected a rise in gasoline inventories of about 1.0 million barrels.

Elsewhere, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria said that unknown people had attacked its pipeline near the oil city Port Harcourt, resulting in a major spill and fire. This had affected production of 170,000 barrels per day of crude oil, a company statement said.

Oil prices wilted in recent days following long-range forecasts by the US National Weather Service, which predicted above-average temperatures in most of the United States from January to March.

During the first 15 days of December, oil prices gained eight percent, owing largely to a cold snap in the northeastern United States, which accounts for some 80 percent of the country's energy demand.