ANKARA

 Crude oil prices reached a new year high above $68 per barrel Wednesday, due to falling domestic oil production and number of oil rigs in the U.S., and output cut in Libya. 

Price of the global benchmark Brent crude oil price increased to $68.64 per barrel at 8:00 a.m. GMT, according to official figures, which is the highest level since Dec. 5 when it was $69.80 per barrel. 

Crude oil exports came to a halt in Libya's eastern port Zueitina Tuesday as the country's output fell below 500,000 barrels a day;  it was 1.6 million barrels before the 2011 civil war and the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. 

The North African country declared force majeure at 11 of its oilfields due to security concerns on oil ports and fields amid internal strife.

Current total oil production is 95.2 million barrels a day. Libya represents 0.5 percent of global oil output, and has the second-largest reserves in Africa after Nigeria, according to the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute of Rice University.

The decline in weekly domestic oil production and oil drilling rig count in the U.S. also pushed oil prices up by reducing supply. 

The number of oil drilling rigs in the U.S. fell for the 21st consecutive week, by 24 and dropped to 679 last Friday, according to data from the oilfield services company Baker Hughes.

This is the lowest level for the oil rig count since Sept. 2010.  The number of rigs has decreased 58 percent since Oct. 2014 when the count was at its peak with 1,609. 

There are fewer oil rigs operating because oil prices have plummeted around 60 percent from June 2014  to January 2015. Operators are cutting production as return on investment has plunged. 

In addition, domestic oil output in the U.S. has dropped to 9.37 barrels per day  in the week ending April 24 from 9.4 million barrels per day in the week ending April 3, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude oil imports also fell in the U.S., to 7.45 million barrels per day for the week ending on April 24 from 8.2 million barrels a day for the week ending April 3, agency data show. 

Moreover, the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen continue to pose risks to the transit security of oil supplies from the region to global market. 

The strategic Bab el-Mandab strait, located southwest of Yemen, is the world's fourth biggest choke point for oil transit, where an average of 4.7 million barrels of crude oil passed via tankers per day in 2014.

The price of Brent crude oil fell from $115 per barrel in June 2014 to below $46 per barrel in Jan. 2015, its lowest level in almost six years due to oversupply and low global demand.

Financial investors have raised net-long positions in oil futures for a sixth time to 276,888 in the week to April 28, the most in data extending back to January 2011, according to ICE Futures Europe.