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The kidnap of a three-year-old British girl this week has been seen as an escalation of the violence that has plagued the oil-rich Delta region.
Brent crude climbed as high as $76.01 a barrel, before falling back to trade 1% higher at $75.50. In New York, US light crude added 62 cents to $72.43.
High oil prices may fuel inflation and dent consumer spending, analysts said.
Last August, Brent crude reached a record high of $78.30 when the conflict between Israel and Lebanon was at its height.
Following the resolution of the conflict, the oil price gradually declined as a warmer than usual winter eased demand for heating oil.
By January, the cost of a barrel of oil had fallen to less than $55.
Kidnapping risk
One of the main factors in the rally of recent weeks have been growing fears of further disruption to oil supply from Nigeria.
At present about a third of Nigeria's oil cannot be accessed because of sabotage and anti-Government attacks.
More than 100 foreign workers have been taken hostage in the Nigerian Delta this year and many multinational companies have pulled out workers as a result of the security risks.
In addition, strong demand for petrol during the peak summer holiday months in the US is expected to boost demand for crude oil used in refineries.
That is even though weekly figures showed that US petrol supplies were better than expected at 1.8 million barrels because petrol stocks are still below normal levels for this time of year, analysts said.
Demand for petrol in the US is up 1.2% on last year.
On the rise
"People are starting to wake up to the general tightness in the oil market," said Simon Wardell, an oil analyst at Global Insight.
"It's a combination of different things," he explained.
"There is the situation in Nigeria. And then there is the low stockpiles of petrol and crude oil in the US and, which will have more of an affect in the last quarter of the year when energy demand is expected to be at a peak."
Last summer's high oil prices seeped into the global economy, forcing up the price of petrol and the cost of basic goods.
The worry for many analysts is that inflationary pressures could again increase if oil prices stay high for a sustained period.
Central banks in the UK, Europe and US have been raising interest rates to slow inflation, and already there are concerns that the higher borrowing costs may have a negative effect on consumer spending.