NEW YORK: Benchmark crude settled higher Thursday as protests rocked some Middle East nations and concerns grew about oil supply disruptions. West Texas Intermediate crude for March delivery rose $1.37 to settle at $86.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude fell $1.19 to settle at $102.59 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange, as some traders took profits after recent gains. Troops and tanks descended on demonstrators in the capital of Bahrain Thursday. There have also been anti-government protests in Iran, Algeria, Jordan and Libya following the ouster of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. Algeria and Libya are also important crude suppliers. “There's a lot of traders concerned about what's going on in the Middle East and North Africa,” said Mike Zarembski, senior commodity analyst at brokerage OptionsXpress Inc. He said uncertainty about the Middle East heading into a three-day holiday weekend in the US also contributed to higher prices for benchmark WTI crude. Recent unrest in the Middle East has had a bigger impact on prices for Brent crude than WTI. Brent is the benchmark price for North Sea oil production, and it is used as a reference price for oil produced in other areas, such as Africa and South America. Moreover, gold prices rose Thursday for a fourth day, their longest winning streak since September, as US consumer price data stoked worries over inflation, adding fuel to safe-haven buying due to flaring Middle East tensions. Bullion's gains sparked strong investment buying in silver, which rallied to a 31-year high, further widening silver's gains over gold and sending the gold-silver ratio to a near five-year low. Gold was set for its strongest weekly performance this year, recovering from January when it notched the biggest monthly decline in six months, as investor appetite was rekindled by rising political tensions. Other safe-haven investments like the Swiss franc and US Treasuries also rose. Spot gold rose to a five-week high at $1,384.65 an ounce and was up 0.7 percent at $1,384.19 an ounce by 3:14 P.M. EST (2014 GMT). US gold futures for April delivery settled up $10 at $1,385.10, with volume about 55 percent below its 30-day norm. That was in line with recent lower-than-normal turnover, a possible sign of dwindling trading interest. Silver hit a session high of $31.77 an ounce and was up 3.6 percent at $31.73 an ounce. “Good physical buying for silver on strong industrial and retail coin and bar demand are underpinning the market,” said Auramet's Dunn.
