Oil headed for a third week of gains in New York after climbing above $111 a barrel as a fire burned at Libya’s Sarir field and on concern the conflict in other energy-exporting countries may spread. Futures advanced to a 30-month intraday high today after NATO said forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi caused a fire at Sarir, Al Arabiya television reported. The conflict in Libya is in a stalemate, said Army General Carter Ham, the U.S. commander for Africa. Unrest has toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and spread to Syria, Bahrain, Yemen and Oman. “The main game continues to be the Middle Eastern situation,” said Ben Westmore, a minerals and energy economist at National Australia Bank Ltd. in Melbourne. “What happens there is going to trump other events.” Crude for May delivery rose as much as 89 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $111.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Sept. 22, 2008. The contract was at $111.13 at 2:51 p.m. Sydney time. Yesterday, it rose $1.47, or 1.4 percent, to $110.30. Prices are up 2.8 percent for the week and 30 percent in the past year. North Atlantic Treaty Organization jets flew 164 missions over Libya on April 6, including 73 “strike sorties” to engage possible targets as part of its air campaign, the military alliance said in a statement posted on its website. Brent oil for May settlement gained 72 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $123.50 on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Yesterday, it increased 37 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $122.67, the highest settlement since Aug. 1, 2008. Brent Premium The European benchmark traded at a premium of $12.37 a barrel to U.S. futures yesterday. The difference between front- month contracts in London and New York surged to a record $19.54 on Feb. 21 as unrest spread in the Middle East and North Africa and stockpiles climbed at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for New York futures. The spread averaged 76 cents last year. “Key oil support came from Middle East headlines,” Mark Pervan, head of commodity research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. in Melbourne, said in an e-mailed note. “The Sirte Basin is where two-thirds of Libyan oil production comes from. The oilfield was originally thought to be unlikely at risk of sabotage due to its remote location in the Saharan desert, so the fire significantly weighed on the supply outlook.” Libya’s current crude output is between 250,000 barrels and 300,000 barrels a day, all of which goes to domestic refineries and to meet local consumption, Shokri Ghanem, chairman of the state-run National Oil Corp., said yesterday in a telephone interview from Tripoli. OPEC Shipments The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will cut crude-oil loadings for a ninth week as Libyan exports drop, according to tanker-tracker Oil Movements. The group will ship 22.98 million barrels a day in the four weeks to April 23, down from 23.36 million barrels in the period ended March 26, the Halifax, England-based consultant said in a report yesterday. Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and most populous nation, scheduled parliamentary elections for April 9 and an election for president on April 16. Elections in 2003 and 2007 were marred by violence, voter intimidation and the stuffing of ballot boxes. Oil in New York also climbed after the U.S. Labor Department said applications for unemployment insurance declined by 10,000 to 382,000 last week, the fewest since Feb. 26. Economists projected jobless claims would be 385,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell at crussell7@bloomberg.net

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