OIL FUTURES: Prices Soar As Libya Violence Nears Oil Facilities

LONDON (Dow Jones) - Crude oil futures are trading higher on Monday as opposition forces and soldiers loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi clashed near some of the key country's energy infrastructure.
Fighting centered on the oil refinery city of Brega and Ras Lanuf and other parts of the country that are home to the oil fields and other infrastructure. With no end in sight to the conflict, the oil market began to cut prices much more time to the production of Libya's 1.6 million barrels a day.
At 1139 GMT, the front-month April Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was up $ 2 at $ 117.97 a barrel. The front month April contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $ 2.07 to $ 106.49 a barrel, after touching $ 106.82, its highest since September 2008.
"If the conflict continues in Libya with a bloody civil war lasting supply [the country] of oil is not available to the market over a long period with an increased risk of real damage to oil installations in Libya" SEB writes.
The big oil producers could do little to stop the demonstration, despite mounting evidence that Saudi Arabia is trying to make good his promise to replace the shortfall in production in Libya.
The Qatar Oil Minister Mohammed Al-Sada, said Monday the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was "evaluating" whether to hold an emergency meeting, but said "there is no shortage in the production and supply of crude oil ".
As prices continued to move higher on Monday, several investment banks raised their oil price forecast for 2011 and 2012, indicating the opinion of analysts of the protests in the Middle East and North Africa as long-term support term for the market. Citigroup raised its forecast for Brent crude at an average price of $ 105 per barrel in 2011 and $ 100 in 2012 from $ 90 per year earlier. The bank said the revisions reflect a market value against a stronger first quarter than expected and a view that the disruption of output, or at least the threat of it, will support a "fear premium "for the rest of 2011.
At 1120 GMT ICE gasoil for March traded at $ 984.50 a tonne, up $ 18.25 from Friday's settlement. Nymex April reformulated gasoline blendstock rose 3.82 points to $ 3.0846 a gallon.

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110307-704069.html)