LONDON — Brent crude climbed above $109 a barrel on Tuesday as tension rose in the Middle East and oil stockpiles in top consumer the US were expected to fall.
Washington told US citizens on Tuesday to depart from Yemen immediately due to the threat of "terrorist attacks".
The new measures followed a heightened security alert on Friday that forced the closure of Western embassies in Yemen and US missions across the Middle East and Africa.
"The Yemen headline pushed oil prices higher," said Jefferies Bache oil broker Christopher Bellew. "But there’s big speculative length in crude oil. The market is looking strong now, but it’s vulnerable to the downside."
Brent crude was up 42c at $109.12 by 10.06am GMT after slipping to $108.15 in earlier trade. US oil rose 55c to $107.11 a barrel.
Brent has risen nearly 10% in six weeks, touching $110.09 on August 2, the highest since early April, in part due to concern over supply from major exporters such as Libya and Iraq.
Oil also strengthened on expectations that US crude and petrol stockpiles fell last week.
A preliminary Reuters poll, ahead of weekly inventory reports from the American Petroleum Institute and the US Energy Information Administration, forecast an average crude stock fall of 700,000 barrels last week.
In the previous week, US crude inventories rose 431,000 barrels to about 365-million barrels.
Even though risk premiums have come off, concern over the crisis in Syria engulfing the region continued to support prices. President Bashar al-Assad said crushing "terrorists" had to come before any political solution, dimming hopes of an international peace conference any time soon.
