* U.S. discusses suspected Syria chemical attack with allies * Libya resumes crude loading at Marsa al-Brega port * Weak U.S. data tempers view on Fed tapering * Coming up: U.S. API weekly oil data; 2030 GMT (Updates previous SINGAPORE) By Peg Mackey LONDON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Brent crude rose above $111 a barrel on Tuesday as rising tension over a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria raised the prospect of Western military action in the Middle East. The United States and its allies have met in Jordan for what could be a council of war should they decide to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has denied using chemical weapons and blamed rebels for staging such attacks. Brent crude was trading at $111.40, up 67 cents by 0919 GMT. Brent hit $111.68 on Monday, its highest since Apr. 2. U.S. crude rose 48 cents to $106.40 a barrel, after falling 0.5 percent the previous day as data showed U.S. durable goods orders had dropped the most in nearly a year. Unrest in the Middle East, which pumps a third of the world's oil, has supported Brent crude as investors fear the crises in Syria and Egypt could spill over to the rest of the region and disrupt oil supply. "The oil price is in a kind of 'comfort zone' at between $100 and $120 per barrel. Ever since the Arab Spring began in early 2011, Brent has been trading for 85 percent of the time within this range," said a Commerzbank research note. "In the event of a military strike (on Syria) the risk of the situation escalating in the Middle East would increase, however, which should see oil prices climb to the top of this trading corridor." The United States put Syria's Assad on notice on Monday that it believes he was responsible for using chemical weapons against civilians last week in what Secretary of State John Kerry called a "moral obscenity." In Libya, one of its ports, Marsa al-Brega, has resumed crude loadings after workers' protests reduced exports from the OPEC producer to the lowest since its civil war in 2011. Libya's largest port Es Sider remained shut. The country warned on Monday that it will attack and destroy any tanker illegally exporting oil. Its armed forces last week fired at a Liberian-flagged tanker close to Es Sider port. In the United States, weak data on home sales and durable goods orders tempered views that the Federal Reserve could start paring back stimulus as soon as September. The American Petroleum Institute will later on Tuesday release its weekly oil stocks data. A preliminary Reuters poll showed that U.S. commercial crude stockpiles were expected to have fallen last week as refinery utilisation rates were at high levels, and gasoline inventories likely dipped primarily due to seasonal factors. (Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by Keiron Henderson)

Source