* Another China rate hike briefly weakens crude prices
* N. Africa, Mideast unrest remain supportive to oil
* Coming up: API oil data, 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday
(Recasts, updates prices and market activity, changes byline
and moves dateline from previous LONDON)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, April 5 (Reuters) - Brent crude jumped to a 2-1/2
year peak above $122 a barrel on Tuesday, gaining for a fourth
day as conflict and unrest in Africa and the Middle East more
than offset China's latest interest rate hike.
U.S. crude futures seesawed ahead of weekly inventory
reports, hemmed in by the prospect that data late in the day
will show crude stocks rose again last week and more supply
arrived at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub.
Oil and copper slumped earlier on the threat to demand from
another Chinese interest rate hike, the fourth since October,
and China's rate move also limited U.S. equities gains, though
the major stock indexes had extended gains by midday.
Brent crude's premium to U.S. benchmark West Texas
Intermediate crude <CL-LCO1=R> increased to more than $14
intraday for the first time since March 3, after it had reached
a record $17.12 a barrel on March 1.
Brent crude for May <LCOc1> rose $1.01 to to $122.07 a
barrel by 12:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), having reached $122.89, the
highest since August 2008.
U.S. crude <CLc1> fell 21 cents to $108.26, unable to take
out Monday's $108.78 intraday peak, which was the highest since
September 2008.
Trading volumes remained well below 30-day and 250-day
averages, with total Brent crude trading volumes well above
those for U.S. crude after midday in New York.
"WTI is sputtering a bit ahead of inventory data. But Brent
continues to march higher on Middle East/Africa supply outages
and concerns," said Tom Bentz, broker at BNP Paribas
Commodities Futures Inc in New York.
The back-and-forth fight for the Libyan oil town of Brega
reinforced the prospect that a stalemate in the conflict will
prolong the loss of the country's 1.3 million barrels per day
of exports. []
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FACTBOX on Libya's oil production: []
More on Middle East unrest: []
Libya Graphics http://link.reuters.com/neg68r
Interactive graphic http://link.reuters.com/puk87r
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
"The geopolitical problems are closer to Europe and
Nigeria's election delay and Forties cargoes delays, all
hitting sweet crude supply," said Andrew Lebow, broker at MF
Global in New York.
Worry about Chinese demand being limited by its efforts at
curbing inflation could not offset Libya's conflict and unrest
in Saudi Arabia's neighboring Yemen and anger in Nigeria over
delayed elections. [] []
Ahead of weekly U.S. industry and government oil inventory
reports, analysts surveyed on Monday expected crude stocks to
have risen 1.4 million barrels last week. []
Gasoline stocks were expected to be 1.9 million barrels
lower and distillates to have posted a small, 200,000-barrel,
decline. []
(Additional reporting by Jessica Donati in London and Seng Li
Peng and Simon Webb in Singapore; Editing by Alden Bentley)
