* Unrest sets high floor for crude prices -analyst
* Dollar at 29-yr low against Australian dollar supports
oil, gold
* Brent technicals point to upside target $127
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* Coming Up: U.S. March new home sales m/m`; 1230 GMT
(Updates prices)
By Manash Goswami
SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters) - Brent crude futures rose
above $124 a barrel on Monday after violence in Syria and Yemen
escalated over the weekend, boosting fears that unrest may
disrupt more oil supplies in the Middle East and North Africa.
Brent <LCOc1> gained 45 cents to $124.44 a barrel by 0655
GMT. U.S. crude <CLc1> rose 40 cents to $112.69 a barrel.
"There is no question about it -- Middle East and North
Africa continue to be the key factors," said Victor Shum, an
analyst at Purvin & Gertz. "Violence has spread beyond Libya to
Syria and Yemen and that has set a high floor for oil prices."
Gains in oil this week would likely be capped on concerns of
the negative impact of high prices on demand and the global
economy. Prices were likely to trade within a narrow range, Shum
said.
Prolonged protests and looming concern over further
disruptions would keep markets on edge since fuel demand in key
consumers, such as China and India, continues to rise.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia needs to pump at least 9
million barrels per day (bpd) of crude for the next few years
and is considering boosting capacity to meet rising demand,
Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) said in a report, citing
Saudi sources. []
Technical analysis showed that Brent's next target to the
upside is $127.02 a barrel after it cleared resistance at
$124.02, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said.
SYRIA, YEMEN
Syrian troops in armoured vehicles poured into the restive
town of Deraa overnight and opened fire, residents said on
Monday, the latest bloodshed in crackdown on protests that has
escalated sharply in recent days. []
Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 350
civilians since unrest began last month. A third of the victims
were killed in the past three days as the scale and breadth of a
popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad grew.
"Geopolitics is getting worse, not better," a trader with a
Western oil firm said. "Syria is now the big news. They export a
bit of oil, too."
Yemen's veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh struck a
defiant tone in an interview a day after his government said he
had accepted a Gulf Arab plan to hand over power within weeks.
[]
Saleh has faced down three months of street protests as well
as pressure to go from his main backers Saudi Arabia and the
United States. But opposition groups fear his verbal acceptance
of the plan may be no more than a tactic.
The Sunni Muslim monarchy of Saudi Arabia has seen scattered
protests from minority Shi'ites, but the kingdom has not seen
the mass uprisings seen in other countries in the region.
Some 200 Shi'ites protested in Saudi Arabia's oil-producing
east on Friday. The gathering in the town of Awwamiya defied a
call by leading Shi'ite clerics a day earlier for an end to two
months of protests in the conservative kingdom's Eastern
Province, in an apparent bow to government pressure.
[]
NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's
Bab al-Aziziyah compound, in what a press official from
Gaddafi's government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's
life. []
WEAK DOLLAR
Another factor supporting oil prices is the weak dollar. The
dollar was vulnerable on Monday, hitting a fresh 29-year low
against the Australian dollar under the weight of its low
interest rates.
"It is one of the factors supporting the turnaround in oil,"
Shum said. "Oil is a good hedge."
The weak dollar helped boost spot gold to a record of
$1,513.70 an ounce, extending the record-breaking rally to the
seventh consecutive session. U.S. gold futures <GCcv1> also hit
a record high, at $1,514.50 an ounce.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez and Sugita Katyal)
