Oil rose from the lowest in a week as demonstrations planned in Iran stoked concern the turmoil that cut Libya’s crude output may disrupt Middle East supplies. Futures climbed as much as 0.6 percent as authorities in Iran, the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, arrested opposition leaders to derail protests scheduled today. Fighting in Libya may have shut as much as 850,000 barrels a day of output, according to the International Energy Agency. Prices dropped yesterday after Saudi Arabia said it will compensate for lost Libyan supplies. “The uncertainty about the whole situation will keep oil at higher levels for the next few months,” said Sintje Diek, an analyst at HSH Nordbank in Hamburg. “It’s not over yet. So it’s good news for the market that there’s a big producer in the background who can manage the situation.” Crude for April delivery rose as much as 62 cents to $97.59 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $97.27 at 10:18 a.m. London time. Yesterday, the contract slid to $96.97, the lowest closing price since Feb. 22. Prices gained 5.2 percent last month and are 24 percent higher than a year ago. Brent crude for April settlement climbed 77 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $112.57 a barrel on the London- based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Iran Protests Iran pumped 3.7 million barrels a day in February, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg, making it OPEC’s second-biggest producer behind Saudi Arabia. Opposition supporters are planning to hold a demonstration today after leaders Mehdi Karrubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi were transferred to a Tehran prison, according to the opposition Kaleme website. The European Union yesterday imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions on Libya while the U.S. said it froze $30 billion in the country’s assets. Leader Muammar Qaddafi declared that “my people love me” and sent forces to regain territory lost to rebellions outside Tripoli. New York crude fell the most in two weeks yesterday after Saudi Arabian Oil Co.’s Chief Executive Officer Khalid Al-Falih said the kingdom is “ready to supply incremental change in demand.” Most ships picking up Libyan cargoes have done so successfully in the past week, Bob Knight, head of tankers at Clarkson Plc, the world’s biggest shipbroker, said yesterday. Libya pumped 1.6 million barrels of oil a day in January, making it OPEC’s ninth-largest producer. It ships most of its crude and fuels to Europe. Riots Spread Riots from Morocco to Bahrain have already toppled leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and protests have erupted in Yemen, to the south of Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer. In Oman, the largest Middle Eastern producer outside OPEC, hundreds of protesters gathered in Sohar for a third night yesterday, demanding the government open talks on their demands for more jobs, higher pay and more representative political institutions. Two people were killed, several wounded and a supermarket set on fire during the protests. Oman pumped 885,600 barrels of oil a day in January, according to data reported by the state- run Oman News Agency. Crude-oil exports from Libya may come to a stop as foreign oil workers flee the country, according to Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., the largest U.S.-based owner of oil tankers. “It’s slowing down,” Mats Berglund, head of crude at OSG, said on a conference call yesterday. “We foresee it slowing down more and more, to more or less come to a halt.” An Energy Department report tomorrow may show U.S. crude oil supplies rose 1 million barrels last week from 346.7 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. It would be the seventh week of gains. The industry-funded American Petroleum Institute will publish its data today. To contact the reporter on this story: Rachel Graham in London rgraham13@bloomberg.net; Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

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