The only thing more unpredictable than Colonel Moammar Gadhafi is what follows him. So while his regime may be on its last legs, oil markets aren't yet catching the mood.

After falling sharply early on Monday, Brent crude prices recovered some ground but settled down 0.2%, to $108.36 a barrel in New York. That still is some way above the roughly $100 at which it traded in early February when concerns about lost Libyan oil output first arose.