* Strong equities performance lift crude prices
* Egypt's turmoil persists, but Suez Canal stays open
* Coming up: EIA petroleum inventory report, 1530 GMT
(Recast lead, adds comments, updates prices)
By Seng Li Peng
SINGAPORE, Feb 9 (Reuters) - London crude prices rallied
more than half a percent Wednesday, back up above $100 a barrel
due to tighter North Sea supplies and concerns over a strike at
firms owned by the Suez canal authority, although transit
through the waterway was unaffected.
ICE Brent rose 60 cents to $100.52 a barrel at 0710
GMT, with U.S. crude for March up 66 cents to $87.60 a
barrel. The spread between the two benchmarks widened to $12.92
a barrel. <CL-LCO1=R>
"Constraints in North Sea supplies will continue to cause
the spread between the two benchmarks to be quite wide," said
Ben Westmore, analyst at National Australia Bank based in
Melbourne.
North Sea Forties crude oil supplies are slightly tighter
for March. So far, around 793,000 barrels per day (bpd) are seen
for March loading, down from around 850,000 bpd scheduled for
February.
"The unrest in Egypt also seems to have more of an impact on
Brent prices rather than WTI, but there isn't a lot of upside to
oil prices in general," added Westmore, a sentiment that is
shared by other analysts.
Egyptians staged one of their biggest protests yet on
Tuesday demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down now, their
wrath undiminished by the vice president's announcement of a
plan to transfer power.
Adding to the turmoil was a strike staged by about 3,000
workers in companies owned by the Suez Canal authorities in
Ismailia and Suez over pay and conditions.
Investors shrugged off risks posed by a rise in Chinese
interest rates over week-long holidays with the market braced
for further rate rises as the world's second biggest energy
consumer struggled to contain inflation.
"Chinese policymakers' efforts to rein in overheating
pressures are now seen in a relatively more positive light by
global investors in that they will help slow growth to a more
sustainable pace, while other engines of growth in the region
begin to rev up," said Samarjit Shankar, analyst at BNY Mellon.
BULLISH U.S DATA MAY NOT BE ENOUGH
Supporting prices, U.S. crude stocks unexpectedly fell
558,000 barrels last week on sharply lower imports, the American
Petroleum Institute (API) said on Tuesday. This contrasted
expectations from analysts polled by Reuters who had expected a
2.4 million-barrel rise in crude stocks.
Crude imports fell 1.1 million barrels a day (bpd) to 8.65
million bpd, while crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, the
delivery point for U.S. oil futures, fell by 927,000 barrels,
API said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said more
supply will be needed as the world will consume about 140,000
bpd more in oil than it had forecast last month, with demand now
expected to average a record 88.16 million barrels per day this
year.
Bullish sentiment in equities also underpinned crude. The
Dow Jones industrial average notched a seventh straight
day of gains on Tuesday, rising 0.6 percent, as surprisingly
strong sales by McDonald's boosted optimism about
consumer spending.
Japan's Nikkei hit a 9-month high before retreating
to close down 0.2 percent as bank shares were hit by
profit-taking, but Australia's benchmark index rose 0.3
percent and New Zealand shares also gained.
"The (U.S.) crude oil market is now held up by the bullish
stock market, rather than geopolitical reasons," said Benson
Wang of Commodity Broking Services in Sydney.
"The Egyptian unrest had pushed the market up in the last 15
days, but I think people's reaction towards that is now calmer,
and the effects on (U.S.) oil prices are reducing."
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
