* Brent stays near 2-1/2 year high
* MidEast, N. Africa unrest, Nigeria election delay support
prices
* WTI/Brent spread above $12/bbl as Europe under more
pressures
* Coming Up: U.S. API petroleum stocks at 2030 GMT
(Adds Bernanke comments, South Korea fuel price cuts)
By Seng Li Peng
SINGAPORE, April 5 (Reuters) - Oil prices dipped but stayed
with sight of their highest levels since 2008 on Tuesday, with
Brent near $121 a barrel, supported by unrest in the world's top
oil exporting regions and delays to elections in Nigeria.
Brent crude for May <LCOc1> fell 27 cents to $120.79 a
barrel at 0804 GMT, after closing at $121.06 a barrel on Monday,
the highest settlement since Aug. 1, 2008.
U.S. crude <CLc1> fell 36 cents to $108.11 a barrel after
settling at $108.47 on Monday, the highest since Sept. 22, 2008.
After Monday's rise, investors booked profits, said Jonathan
Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services in
Melbourne.
"WTI had a good run at $108, and it needs to stay above $108
to be bullish. But last night, the spread between WTI and Brent
blew out," said Barratt.
"This gives us a clue that perhaps there is more demand in
Europe, and more concerns in Europe with what's happening in the
Gulf region."
The loss of Libyan oil exports as civil war grips the
country has forced top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to raise
supply, eroding spare capacity and intensifying the perception
of tight fundamentals as the basis for price gains on even
relatively small output interruptions, analysts said.
A labor strike in Gabon helped push prices higher on Monday,
after it halted around 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of supply,
though Royal Dutch/Shell <RDSa.L> on Tuesday said
it expects output back to normal within days after the oil union
agreed to end to the strike. []
Oil markets were also concerned about the potential for
elections to unleash supply problems from OPEC-member Nigeria.
Presidential elections there were postponed a week due to
logistical problems.
Nigeria has a history of contentious elections and militants
there have previously hit oil supplies.
Both Nigeria and Gabon produce the sweet crude that is at a
premium due to Libyan outages.
"Anything that affects Brent or Africa is going to be
important, especially under the current situation in Libya,"
said Tony Nunan, a risk manager with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi
Corp.
"This is the worst possible time to have an outage in Africa
regardless of their production. The spread between the two
crudes have widened, although not as bad as before."
Delayed loading of several cargoes of Forties crude -- which
typically sets the level of the dated Brent benchmark -- will
add to supply pressure. []
The discount of U.S. crude futures to Brent <CL-LCO1=R>
widened to $12.82 at 0633 GMT, short of record levels of $17 a
barrel at the start of March.
Rebels in Libya may this week sell the first tanker full of
crude since the uprising against Gaddafi halted exports from the
North African country and sent oil prices up from $100.
[]
OPEC
Oil remained well above the preferred range of top oil
exporter Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbour and OPEC ally
Kuwait, but there is no sign yet of a coordinated output
increase from the producer group.
Saudi Arabia has not changed its view of the optimal level
for oil prices and is still seeking $70 to $80 a barrel, a Saudi
official told Reuters on Monday. []
Kuwait would like to see world oil prices decline but does
not expect them to fall below $90 a barrel, Farouk al-Zanki,
chief executive of state oil company Kuwait Petroleum Corp
(KPC), said on Monday. []
High energy prices are fueling inflation in consuming
countries, many of which are also suffering from rising food
prices.
Rising global commodity prices had driven the recent
increase in U.S. inflation, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke said on Monday. []
Bernanke said U.S. inflation would likely be short-lived,
even though rising commodity prices were being driven by
fundamentals.
In South Korea, the world's fifth-largest oil producer, the
government has put pressure on the country's top refiners to cut
fuel prices in a move that is likely to cost them hundreds of
millions of dollars in lost revenue. []
Weekly industry and government petroleum inventory reports
are forecast to show a 1.4 million build in U.S. crude
inventories, a 1.9 million barrel decline in gasoline stockpiles
and a 200,000 barrel drop in distillates, according to a Reuters
poll of analysts.
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng and Simon Webb; Editing by Ed Lane)
