* Technicals show Brent to fall, WTI to rise []
* Goldman says fundamentals don't justify price
* Biggest one-week plunge in gasoline stocks since 1998
(Updates prices)
By Barbara Lewis
LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - Oil rose towards $123 on
Wednesday, partly reversing a deep sell-off, after U.S. gasoline
stocks dived and talks on Libya showed divisions among foreign
powers seeking an end to the violence racking the OPEC member.
ICE Brent crude for May <LCOc1> rose by $1.72 to $122.64 a
barrel by 1508 GMT and U.S. crude for May delivery <CLc1> gained
84 cents to $107.09.
Wednesday's gains followed a two-day sell-off driven by
influential commodities bank Goldman Sachs, which said a rally,
which took Brent to a two-and-a-half year high above $127 in
intra-day trade on Monday, looked overdone.
Comments from representatives of consumer countries that
high prices had begun to depress consumption also depressed
sentiment.
"It is becoming a key risk -- the oil prices derailing the
economic recovery," Fatih Birol, chief economist of the
International Energy Agency, told Reuters on Wednesday.
The latest inventory data from the U.S. government's Energy
Information Administration, however, did not provide evidence
demand had been destroyed yet. It found total product
consumption over the past four weeks was up 0.1 percent from a
year ago.
Gasoline stocks fell by 7 million barrels last week, much
more than expected as refinery utilisation rates fell. []
"Everyone is looking at the gasoline draw, but I do not
think the product draws are enough to shake the market, given
the fall in refinery rates," said Gene McGillian, an analyst at
Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
"The market still has one eye on the Middle East and
Africa."
LIBYAN UNREST
Violence in OPEC-member Libya has shut off most of its
production, which was around 1.6 million bpd before unrest
began.
Oilfields controlled by rebels are pumping around 100,000
barrels per day (bpd), but only a "minimal amount" is being
exported, a rebel spokesman said on Wednesday. []
He was speaking in Qatar, where ministers attended talks on
Libya's future. Some participants were eager for air strikes
against Muammar Gaddafi's forces as they feared the conflict
could settle into a bloody stalemate. []
OPEC spare capacity should be enough to cope with such an
outcome, provided the upheaval doesn't embroil other producer
nations. Saudi Arabia alone has more than 3 million bpd to
spare.
The hitherto bullish Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday that
speculators had pushed prices ahead of fundamentals of supply
and demand. []
OPEC has also repeatedly said there is more than enough oil
in the market to meet demand.
Leading exporter Saudi Arabia has said it will pump extra
crude if there is a need, but following a big increase in March,
Saudi-based industry sources said the kingdom had reined in
production. []
A new blend the kingdom produced to compensate for barrels
of light, easy-to-refine crude lost to Libyan unrest, has met a
muted response from the market.
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More on Middle East unrest: [] []
Libya Graphics http://link.reuters.com/neg68r
Interactive graphic http://link.reuters.com/puk87r
For a technical chart on WTI-Brent, click:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/WT1/20111304101313.jpg
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(Additional reporting by Florence Tan and Seng Li Peng in
Singapore and Christopher Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Jane
Baird and Alison Birrane)
