* Brent stays supported by tension in Egypt
* Brent/WTI spreads above $15/bbl
* North Sea supplies stay tight, but U.S. stockpiles up
* Coming Up: IEA monthly reports Thursday
(Updates prices)
By Seng Li Peng
SINGAPORE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Brent crude rose above $102 on
Thursday, supported by the ongoing tension in Egypt and tighter
North Sea supplies, in contrast to higher crude stockpile in the
U.S., causing the spread between the benchmarks to stay wide.
ICE Brent rose 24 cents to $102.06 a barrel, while
U.S. crude for March gained 19 cents to $86.91 a barrel
at 0407 GMT. The spread between the two benchmarks were at
$15.15 a barrel <CL-LCO1=R>, down from a record high of $15.41 a
barrel.
"When there are political reasons simmering in the
background, people are always going to analyse that," said Ben
Le Brun of CMC Markets based in Sydney, who added that possible
or ongoing tension especially in the Middle East will cause oil
prices to escalate.
Investors remained concerned that the unrest in Tunisia and
Egypt could ignite similar protests in bigger oil producers such
as Libya -- or even Saudi Arabia.
Egypt stays mired in political turmoil since Jan. 25.
The government of embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
hit back on Wednesday at what it called U.S. attempts to
"impose" American will on a loyal Middle East ally, saying rapid
reforms would be too risky.
But as pro-democracy protesters consolidated a new
encampment around Cairo's parliament building, the White House
again said that Egyptian ministers must do more to meet the
demands of demonstrators, who want an immediate end to Mubarak's
30 years of one-man rule and sweeping legislative changes.
Four people were killed and several suffered gunshot wounds
in clashes between security forces and some 3,000 protesters in
a desert province far from Cairo on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It appeared to be the most serious such clash with official
forces since Jan. 28, when police all but disappeared from
Egyptian streets after they had beaten, tear gassed and fired on
protesters.
BENCHMARK SPREADS TO STAY FAR APART
The spread between the two crude oil benchmarks will likely
stay wide apart for some time as the tension in Egypt and
tighter European supplies will drive Brent prices up at a much
faster pace versus WTI.
"The spread between Brent and WTI is very huge at the
moment, but this is due to the fact that there are more supplies
in America versus Europe," said Le Brun.
Output from the four benchmark North Sea crude oil streams
is due to fall in March to around 1.13 million barrels per day
(bpd) from around 1.22 million bpd in February.
Brent <>, Forties <FOT-E>, Oseberg <OSE-E> and Ekofisk
<EKO-E> make up the North Sea BFOE crude oil benchmark, which is
used to value around 20 million bpd of crude in the Atlantic
basin, a figure equal to almost a quarter of daily world supply.
Ekofisk <EKO-E> crude oil stream for instance is expected to
load an average of around 337,000 barrels per day (bpd) in
March, down from 373,000 bpd in February.
Oseberg crude oil stream will load around 135,000 barrels
per day (bpd) in March, down from 150,000 bpd in February.
In contrast, domestic U.S. crude stocks rose 1.9 million
barrels to 345.06 million barrels in the week to Feb. 4 although
imports fell 105,000 barrels a day to 8.88 million bpd.
Despite tighter North Sea supplies, analysts Reuters spoke
to so far this week were not persuaded that the fundamentals
could sustain the hike in crude oil prices.
"Brent is partially reliant on European economies," said Ben
Westmore of National Australia Bank.
European shares edged lower from 29-month highs earlier this
week, with a number of big stocks trading ex-dividend offsetting
a wave of upbeat earnings news.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was
down 0.2 percent at 1,173.73 points.
Fundamentally, "OPEC said they still have supplies that they
can flood the market with, but they are quite happy with the
prices they are seeing at the moment," said Le Brun.
OPEC's secretary-general Abdullah Al-Badri told the
Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspapers on Wednesday that there
is no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting as the oil
market is well supplied and the recent price rise is not related
to any threat to supplies.
"The (state of the) oil market does not require holding an
emergency meeting for OPEC but of course we will remain vigilant
of the market," he said.
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Manash Goswami)
