The price gap between the world's two leading oil benchmarks returned to near record highs Thursday as fresh supply disruptions propped up European benchmark Brent crude--the marker for more than half the world's oil.

In the early part of the week, Brent consistently underperformed U.S. oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate in percentage terms, causing the spread to retreat from the highs hit in the previous week.

Analysts had predicted a sharper drop in Brent crude than in U.S. crude after Libyan rebels stormed the capital Tripoli over the weekend, raising hopes that crucial oil exports could finally resume from the North African country. A sharper drop in Brent prices would have narrowed the spread between the two futures contracts.

But fading hopes of a speedy capture of Col. Moammar Gadhafi as well as fresh supply disruptions in key oil producer Nigeria and ongoing issues in the North Sea have only further increased Brent's premium to WTI.

"The market may have prematurely priced in a rapid return of Libyan oil, depressing Brent relative to WTI and is currently adjusting while waiting to have more clarity on timing and quantity," said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity strategy at BNP Paribas in London .

Since the beginning of the year, supply bottlenecks at WTI's delivery point at Cushing Okla. and disruptions in Europe have pushed the two futures contacts apart, with the difference between the two contracts reaching an all-time high of more than $26 a barrel Aug. 19.

Historically, the two oil grades have traded within $1 to $2 a barrel of each other.

The unusual widening of the price gap has brought joy to West Coast refiners able to benefit from comparatively cheap WTI, but has proved disastrous for companies using the U.S. benchmark to hedge their exposure to oil and its products globally.

The big spread in prices has also raised questions over which of the two crudes is the more accurate global oil benchmark.

In addition to the loss of some 1.3 million barrels of Libyan crude exports, traders are facing ongoing supply disruptions in the North Sea , where prolonged maintenance to major oil fields has resulted in delays and cancellations to several crude cargoes since May. Most of the maintenance was meant to be completed by the end of August, but traders have reported continued supply issues into September.

Furthermore, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) Tuesday said some of its Nigerian crude supplies would be disrupted for the next two months due to several incidences of pipeline sabotage.

Bonny Light, the grade of crude that has been affected in Nigeria , is of a similar quality to the type of oil Libya usually exports and is highly prized by refiners on both sides of the Atlantic .

At 1128 GMT Brent crude's premium to WTI stood at $24.98 a barrel.

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