03.02.2011, 11:38 5222

Brent crude rose to $103 on Egyptian crisis

Brent crude rose up to $103 on Thursday after the political crisis in Egypt erupted into violence, the agency reports.

Almaty. February 3. Kazakhstan Today - Brent crude rose up to $103 on Thursday after the political crisis in Egypt erupted into violence, the agency reports.

Brent crude approached $103 on Thursday after violent clashes in Egypt raised the prospect of further unrest across the Middle East, overshadowing the bearish effect of soaring gasoline inventories in top consumer the United States, Reuters informed.

ICE Brent crude for March rose as much as 29 cents to $102.63 a barrel, the highest intraday price since September 29, 2008, and was up 22 cents at $102.56 at 0245 GMT. U.S. crude for March rose 37 cents to $91.23.

"The chance of contagion to a country that is systemically important for oil markets still remains relatively low, but it's the combination of that possibility and the importance of oil flows from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal that is building a premium" into prices, said Ben Westmore, commodities economist at National Australia Bank.

Backers of President Hosni Mubarak, throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on camels and horses, attacked protesters in Cairo on Wednesday after the army told reformists demanding the president quit to go home.

The crisis has also alarmed western governments who have regarded Mubarak as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region, and has raised the prospect of unrest spreading across the Middle East and North Africa, which combined produce more than a third of the world's oil supplies.

The appearance of Mubarak supporters on Cairo's streets and their clashes with protesters - after days of relatively calm demonstrations - complicated U.S. calculations for an orderly transition of power in Egypt.

So far, the unrest in Egypt has not affected traffic on the Suez Canal or flows on the Suez-Mediterranean (SUMED) oil pipeline. Egypt controls both the canal and the duct, which together moved over 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and oil products in 2009, the latest data available.

U.S. crude inventories rose 2.59 million barrels to 343.16 million barrels in the week to January 28, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, while stockpiles of gasoline surged by 6.15 million barrels to 236.23 million barrels, the highest level since 1993.

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