The prices of oil went up slightly among slow commercial Tuesday the shortly after the holidays of the United States, with hopes that the inauguration of a new president in the Nigeria member of OPEC would bring a measurement of stability to the market.

Prices have eased since last Friday in the U.S. on news that a Nigerian oil workers’ strike ended over the weekend. Monday there was no floor trade and no closing price in the U.S. because of the Memorial Day holiday.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery was at $64.59 barrel by noon in European electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was up 4 cents from Monday, when the contract traded down to $64.55 a barrel. Before the long weekend, U.S. crude oil climbed more than $1 to $65.20 Friday.

Brent futures for July were trading at $69.93, up 22 cents on London’s ICE commodities exchange. Traders said Brent crude was better supported than Nymex crude as some 200,000 barrels per day of supply from the North Sea is likely to be off-line due to regular maintenance scheduled to begin this week.

The Memorial Day weekend signals the start of the U.S. driving season and traders are anticipating upswings in prices, believing that Americans will take to the highways despite near-record gasoline prices.

“Over the Memorial Day weekend, some 32.1 million Americans were expected to cover distances of 50 miles or more,” Vienna’s PVM Oil Associates said, citing the American Automobile Association. “This represents a 1.8 percent increase from last year’s level.”

In Nigeria, the civils servant of trade union ordered oil workmen to work Saturday after the government agree on one to increase again by 15 percent for all the employees of national oil native of Niger Co. The trade unions began the strike Thursday and threatened to aim at exports in the hopes to reverse the sale of the refineries of government.

Nigeria’s state oil company holds the majority stake in joint ventures with international oil companies that account for more than 90 percent of the country’s oil exports. The strike did not affect crude output from Africa’s biggest producer.

PVM, noting that Nigeria’s new president takes office Tuesday, said the oil industry hopes “that the new administration will manage to bring some stability to the country.”

Umaru Yar’Adua, 56, was sworn in as new president, replacing Olusegun Obasanjo who stepped down after eight years. It marked the first successful transfer of power from one elected government to another in Africa’s most populous country with a history of long years of military rule.

Heating oil futures added just over a penny to $1.9220 a gallon (3.8 liters) on the Nymex, while natural gas prices were up 4 cents to $7.560 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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