Oil prices rose to near $100 a barrel Thursday, March 17, in a volatile market as clashes in Bahrain and Libya renewed concerns about risks to supplies and Japan battled to avoid a full meltdown at a damaged nuclear plant.

By midday in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was up $1.81 at $99.79 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 80 cents to settle at $97.98 on Thursday. In London, Brent crude was up $2.33 at $112.93 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.

Both Nymex and Brent moved in wide trading ranges of over $3.

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil was up 4.48 cents at $3.042 a gallon and gasoline gained 3.56 cents to $2.8793 a gallon. Natural gas rose 4.3 cents at $3.981 per 1,000 cubic feet, AP reports.