NEW YORK: US crude oil futures prices edged up on Monday as continued Middle East unrest and election cycle violence in Nigeria kept the potential for supply disruption in the region in focus.
Limiting gains were continued concerns about demand erosion resulting from current high prices.
Traders returning from a long holiday weekend will eye a Federal Reserve two-day policy meeting this week, including a news conference on Wednesday, seeking clues about the direction of monetary policy as the Fed's bond buying program nears its end in June.
The NYMEX May refined products contracts expire on Friday.
US gasoline futures settled at their highest since July 2008 last Thursday.
FUNDAMENTALS
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, June crude rose 53 cents, or 0.5 percent to $112.83 a barrel by 8:32 a.m. EDT (1232 GMT), trading from $111.76 to $113.07.
OPEC members with spare capacity are ready to pump above agreed limits if there is a need, but the producer group is unlikely to formally change output targets at a meeting in June, Gulf delegates told Reuters.
More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence last week in the mostly Muslim north, a Nigerian human rights group said on Sunday, and it warned of further unrest during state elections.
Syrian troops and tanks stormed Deraa, residents said, seeking to crush resistance in the city where a month-long uprising against the autocratic 11-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad first erupted.
NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound, in what a press official from Gaddafi's government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.
East Libya's Zueitina and Sirte Oil companies will be able to resume work as soon as the areas where they operate are secured, a rebel oil official said on Sunday.
Yemeni security forces opened fire to block a thousand-strong protest and wounded at least 10 people, amid uncertainty over a Gulf plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down within weeks.
MARKETS NEWS
Upward momentum from recent strong earnings reports helped lift US stock index futures, although traders eyed rising oil prices as a potential negative for the market.
Trading was curbed by Easter public holidays in Australia, UK and major European markets.
The dollar won a reprieve after last week's steep slide but traders said it could threaten its all-time low against a basket of currencies if the Federal Reserve takes a cautious stance towards tightening later in the week.
Spot silver surged more than 5 percent, clearing $49 ounce and nearing its 1980 all-time peak on the weak dollar and strong physical demand in Asia, which also sent gold to a record high for a seventh consecutive session.
Shanghai copper closed lower, tracking losses in US futures, which dropped as much as 1.3 percent, ahead of possibly weak economic data from the United States and Britain this week.
UPCOMING DATA/EVENTS
March US new home sales are due at 1000 EDT (1400 GMT). New home sales fell 16.9 percent in February.
American Petroleum Institute oil inventory data released at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday.
NYMEX May RBOB gasoline and heating oil contracts expire on Friday.
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