* Brent stabilises above $115; Nymex bets on higher prices
rise
* Libyan rebels regain control of east Libya oil terminals
* Libyan rebels say Qatar agrees to market crude from east
* Technicals-Brent to break resistance at $117.29
[]
(Adds analyst comments, Libyan rebels take Sirte)
By Alejandro Barbajosa
SINGAPORE, March 28 (Reuters) - Oil was steady on Monday
with Brent stabilising above $115 as investors looked to Middle
East geopolitics to maintain near-record long speculative
positions, while flaring unrest over the weekend was limited to
minor crude exporters Syria and Yemen.
Brent crude for May <LCOc1> slipped 8 cents to $115.51 a
barrel by 0713 GMT, about $4 from a 2-1/2-year high near $120
reached last month and up 22 percent this year. U.S. crude
<CLc1> shed 13 cents to $105.27.
Western-led military intervention in Libya's civil war
prompted speculators to raise their bets on higher prices by 6
percent last week, before rebels took back a series of towns
including oil terminals over the weekend. []
Syria deployed the army to the country's main port also over
the weekend in an attempt to rein in spreading protests across
the country, while in Yemen talks stalled between the government
and opposition. [] []
"Investors are taking a wait-and-see attitude for the next
turn of events in the Middle East," said Natalie Robertson, a
commodities analyst at ANZ in Melbourne.
"Even if there is an increase in exports from Libya, the
long-term implications of unrest across the region will override
that."
A senior Libyan rebel official said on Sunday Gulf oil
producer Qatar had agreed to market crude oil produced from east
Libyan fields that are no longer in the control of Muammar
Gaddafi. []
Output from eastern Libya oil fields controlled by rebels
was running at about 100,000 to 130,000 barrels per day (bpd),
which could be increased to 300,000 bpd, Ali Tarhouni, a rebel
official in charge of economic, financial and oil matters, said
on Sunday. Libya was pumping about 1.6 million bpd before the
rebellion started.
The rebels' advance over the weekend put them back in
control of all the main oil terminals in the eastern half of
Libya, namely Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega, Zueitina and Tobruk.
On Monday, they also claimed to have taken control of Sirte,
Gaddafi's hometown. []
FINANCIAL CONCERNS
Portugal's political and financial crisis was capping gains
in the oil market, while a state German election rout for the
ruling conservative party sent the euro lower on Monday.
[]
European leaders agreed a new package of anti-crisis
measures at a two-day summit, but were forced to delay
increasing their rescue fund and acknowledged they faced new
threats from a government collapse in Portugal. []
"The unrest in the Middle East is providing support, but the
Portugal crisis is capping gains," Robertson from ANZ said.
"Investors will hold onto their long position until
something of significance occurs in the market. If they have
fully priced in the unrest, the market is susceptible to drops
due to profit taking."
Also seeking financial stability, China, the world's
second-largest oil user, will be able to cap inflation below the
full-year target of a 4 percent average rise in prices, the
People's Daily said in a front-page editorial published on
Monday. []
Brent last week posted its third straight weekly gain, up
1.5 percent, as investors remained focused on the deteriorating
geopolitical outlook in the Middle East and North Africa, which
together pump more than a third of the world's oil.
Dozens have died in pro-democracy demonstrations in the
southern Syrian city of Deraa and nearby Sanamein as well as
Latakia in the northwest, Damascus and other towns over the last
week. In Yemen, clashes erupted over the weekend between the
army and militants in the south.
Bahrain's largest Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq has
accepted Kuwait as a mediator with the island nation's
government to end a political crisis gripping the tiny kingdom,
which lies less than 100 kilometres from the hub of the Saudi
oil industry. []
Saudi Arabian King Abdullah earlier this month announced $93
billion in social handouts, the second benefits package to be
unveiled within a month as the kingdom attempts to contain
discontent, especially from Shi'ites in the east of the country,
where the world's biggest oil reserves are located.
"That's a reason oil is trending higher -- simply OPEC is
demanding a higher price for its oil, and the developments in
the Middle East are exacerbating that trend by pushing some
producers like Saudi Arabia to expand their expenditures at
rapid rates," Francisco Blanch, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's
global head of commodity research, told Reuters in Calgary.
"The economy is squarely reliant on oil and becoming a lot
more reliant because the unrest is forcing politicians in Saudi
to start throwing money at the problem."
Speculators raised net-long positions on NYMEX crude by
almost 16,000 to near 287,000 contracts in the week to March 22,
data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed
on Friday, compared with an all-time high of almost 312,000
contracts two weeks earlier.
(With additonal reporting by Jeffrey Jones in Calgary; Editing
by Clarence Fernandez, Himani Sarkar)
