* N. Africa, Mideast unrest remain supportive to oil
* Another China rate hike briefly sent Brent lower
* Coming up: API oil data, 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday
(Recasts, updates prices and market activity)
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 eased in choppy trading ahead of weekly
inventory reports, hemmed in by the prospect that the reports,
starting with industry data due 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.
China's rate move also pressured Wall Street, though the major
stock indexes 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 90 cents to $121.96 a
barrel by 1:40 p.m. (1740 GMT), having reached $122.89, the
highest front-month price since August 2008.
U.S. May crude <CLc1> fell 60 cents to $107.87, unable to
reach 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. []
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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
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"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.
Brent prices were lifted on Monday by news of delays for
several April cargoes of Forties crude -- which typically sets
the level of dated Brent benchmark -- due to a brief drop in
North Sea Buzzard oilfield production last week.
[]
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. oil inventory reports from industry
and government, an expanded analyst survey on Tuesday expected
crude stocks to have risen 1.7 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. []
The inventory report from industry group the American
Petroleum Institute is due at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on
Tuesday, followed by the report from the U.S. Energy
Information Administration on Wednesday morning.
(Additional reporting by Jessica Donati in London and Seng Li
Peng and Simon Webb in Singapore; Editing by Alden Bentley and
David Gregorio)
