* Oil futures fall, dollar index gains on euro zone worries
* Fighting in Libya intensifies
(Updates prices)
By Zaida Espana
LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures slumped on
Thursday as the dollar index strengthened on fresh euro zone
credit woes, while the focus remained on Libya, where the
escalating violence triggered fears that the country's oil
infrastructure could suffer long-lasting damage.
Both Brent and U.S. light crude benchmarks fell by more than
$2 earlier in the session. By 1340 GMT, Brent futures for April
<LCOc1> pared back some losses, down $1.40 to $114.54 a barrel.
U.S. crude futures <CLc1> recouped some of the losses by the
same time, down $1.47 to $102.91.
"Concerns about the eurozone debt crisis have come back to
the surface after the downgrade of Spain," Commerzbank analyst
Carsten Fritsch said. "But I wouldn't expect it to continue, it
could be a short- term blip, as the general direction is upwards
because of the continued supply risk in Libya and tomorrow's day
of rage in Saudi Arabia."
A fall in the euro on the back of Moody's downgrade of
Spain's sovereign debt pushed the dollar index <.DXY> higher. A
stronger greenback typically renders dollar-denominated
commodities such as oil and gold <XAU=> more expensive.
The focus remained on Libya, where tanks fired on rebel
positions around the oil port of Ras Lanuf and warplanes hit
another oil hub further east on Thursday as Muammar Gaddafi
carried counter-attacks deeper into the insurgent heartland.
[]
"What we are looking at is possible damages to the oil
installations. Up to now we still had the residually optimistic
scenario, but if oil installations are being damaged, there is a
completely different situation. We may have to restructure
everything in the medium term to adapt to a substitute to Libyan
oil", Christophe Barret from CA CIB said. "It means Libya could
remain out of the picture for a long time."
An official from the East Libya oil company AGOCO told
Reuters the company was making arrangements to market oil
directly to foreign buyers, instead of through its state-owned
parent. []
The oil port of Brega ran out of crude oil stocks, forcing
crude tankers to cancel shipments or travel to Saudi Arabia, a
source told Reuters. Libya turned away an oil tanker hired by
Chinese oil trading firm Unipec to lift 2.0 million barrels of
Es Sider crude, a trading source said Thursday. []
"The large explosions and enormous columns of smoke from
storage tanks and other facilities in Ras Lanuf, close to the Es
Sider terminal, are perhaps more than merely symbolic," Barclays
Capital oil analysts headed by Paul Horsnell said.
"They represent a final fading of any residual realistic
hope that the outage of Libyan oil could prove to be anything
other than prolonged."
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Graphics showing:
Middle East unrest http://r.reuters.com/nym77r
Saudi Arabia's main oil producing region
http://link.reuters.com/gew48r
FACTBOX on emergency oil stockpiles []
Graphics on U.S. strategic oil reserve, U.S. and other IEA
nations' reserves: http://link.reuters.com/cah48r
Graphic of U.S. oil stocks: http://r.reuters.com/sup48r
Brent and WTI open interest http://r.reuters.com/cag48r
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PRESSURE MOUNTS ON LIBYA
International pressure continues to mount after Russia said
it would ban all weapons sales to Libya, while Germany ordered a
freeze on bank accounts held by the Libyan central bank and the
Libyan Investment Authority. [] []
Confirming previous non-Libyan estimates, Shokri Ghanem,
chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp, said production had been
cut to about half a million barrels per day from 1.6 million bpd
by the war, as many foreign and local workers had left
oilfields. []
Libyan oil trade has been paralyzed as banks decline to
clear payments in dollars due to U.S. sanctions, though Austrian
energy group OMV said it had been buying small amounts of Libyan
crude oil and would continue to do so.
"It appears that most of Libya's bridges with OECD countries
in particular are already aflame or may have already been
burned," Barclays Capital said.
"One can now easily imagine circumstances in which Libya's
previously very short-haul exports of crude oil become very
long-haul indeed."
Saudi Arabia has increased production to 9 million bpd,
almost 1 million bpd above its OPEC target. The kingdom says it
holds spare capacity of 3.5 million bpd. [] Still,
an OPEC delegate said on Wednesday the group saw no need for an
emergency meeting to discuss raising output. []
On Wednesday, U.S. light crude fell after stockpiles at the
pricing point for benchmark West Texas Intermediate at Cushing,
Oklahoma, surged 1.7 million barrels to a record of almost 40.3
million barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration.
That caused the discount of WTI to European marker Brent
<CL-LCO1> to widen, trading at $11.49 a barrel by 1315 GMT.
Total U.S. crude inventories rose 2.5 million barrels last
week, the EIA said, dwarfing the forecast for an increase of
just 400,000 barrels in a Reuters poll. The weekly inventory
data also showed drawdowns for gasoline and distillates were
bigger than expected, reflecting improving demand. []
(Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore;
editing by James Jukwey)
