Asian Oil Prices Soar amid Arab Chaos

Oil was up in Asian trade as escalating tensions in Libya, Syria, and Yemen heightened fears of supply disruption in the Middle East and North African region Agence France Presse reported on Monday.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, rose 36 cents to $112.65 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for June gained 24 cents to $124.23 in the afternoon.

"The violence in Syria and Yemen escalated over the weekend, and traders worry about supply disruption," said Ong Yi Ling, an investment analyst for Phillip Futures in Singapore.

In oil-producing Libya, veteran leader Moammar Gadhafi's office in his immense Tripoli residence was destroyed in an air strike by NATO warplanes enforcing a U.N. resolution early Monday, said an AFP journalist.

Libyan rebels have been seeking to oust Gadhafi after uprisings deposed the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year.

In Syria, security forces shot and arrested demonstrators in a two-day crackdown over the weekend, while fresh clashes broke out between tribesmen and Republican Guard forces in Yemen's southern province of Lahij.