* Mideast tension remains concern after Mubarak ouster
* Chinese trade data shows crude imports surge
* Coming Up: API oil data 4:30 p.m. EST Tuesday
(Recasts, updates prices and market activity)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Brent crude rose more than 2
percent on Monday to top $104 a barrel for the first time in 28
months on concerns about protests in the Middle East and strong
crude oil imports by China.
U.S. crude prices, however, fell in volatile trading,
weighed down by high stockpiles, especially at the Cushing,
Oklahoma, delivery point.
After Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak stepped down last
week, protests in Yemen, Iran, Algeria and Bahrain highlighted
the potential for unrest to spread to other oil-producing
nations. Concerns about the unrest and supply disruptions,
lifted Brent crude, which is seen as more immediately
vulnerable to any supply interruption.
Brent crude <LCOc1> for April delivery rose $2.14 to settle
at $103.08 a barrel, having reached $104.30, the highest price
since Sept. 25, 2008.
U.S. crude for March <CLc1> fell 77 cents to settle at
$84.81 a barrel, having slipped to $84.58, the lowest intraday
price since Dec. 1.
High inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, have pressured U.S.
crude to close lower seven out of the last eight sessions and
pushed out the spread between Brent and U.S. crude to $14 on
Monday.
Brent's premium to U.S. crude <CL-LCO1=R> surged to a
record $16.24 on Friday as the Brent March contract expired.
The much narrower April-to-April spread attracted spread buyers
on Monday, especially at levels below $14 a barrel, according
to analysts and brokers.
"There has to be a lot of spread trading going on keeping
Brent priced so high above WTI," said Gene McGillian, analyst
at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
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Graphic on Brent/U.S. crude: http://r.reuters.com/zad97r
Analysis on Brent: []
Technical view on U.S. crude: []
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Further pressure on U.S. crude could come from weekly
inventory reports due out on Tuesday and Wednesday. Analysts
surveyed by Reuters forecast crude oil and gasoline inventories
rose last week on an import rebound, with distillate stocks
expected to have fallen. []
Traders were also keeping an eye on a U.S. government
proposal to sell $500 million worth of U.S. Strategic Petroleum
Reserve crude oil was included in the White House's budget
proposal sent to Congress. []
At $86 a barrel, that would require selling about 5.8
million barrels to raise the $500 million.
TURMOIL IN MIDDLE EAST
Iranian security forces deployed in Tehran to prevent an
opposition rally and government backers chased down thousands
of pro-reform demonstrators in Yemen's capital, turning unrest
increasingly violent. [] []
Bahraini police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break
up protests in villages ringing the capital Manama.
[]
More fundamental support for oil came from news that
China's crude oil imports rose 27 percent from a year ago to
the fourth highest on record. []
U.S. gasoline <RBc1> and heating oil <HOc1> futures both
rose more than 2 percent on lift from Brent crude's jump.
The gasoline strength came despite news Europe is set to
export around 300,000 tonnes of gasoline to the United States
in the next few weeks. []
"We've heard that refineries in the (U.S.) Northeast are
pricing off of Brent and that is keeping products up despite no
real signs of strong demand and with the inventory surplus the
refiners shouldn't be low on supplies," McGillian said.
(Additional reporting by Gene Ramos in New York, Alex Lawler
in London and Jennifer Tan in Singapore; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
