Oil rises from seven-week low on equity gain, dollar weakness

Oil also gained after Nigerian rebels said they disabled a pipeline operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc. On Feb. 5, the commodity fell to its lowest since mid-December as higher-than- forecast job losses in the U.S. depressed global stock and commodity prices. “The recovery we're seeing today is still driven by sentiment rather than fundamentals, led by the dollar and stock markets,” said Hannes Loacker, an analyst with Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich in Vienna.

Crude oil for March delivery rose as much as US$1.20, or 1.7 percent, to US$72.39 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was up 93 cents at US$72.12 at 9:28 a.m. in London. The contract dropped 2.7 percent to US$71.19 a barrel on Feb. 5, the lowest settlement since Dec. 15.

European stocks gained, rebounding from the biggest weekly slump in 11 months, as investors weighed European finance chiefs' endorsement of a Greek austerity plan. The dollar was 0.6 percent weaker at US$1.3708 against the euro as of 9:27 a.m. London time.

A U.S. government report tomorrow may show wholesale inventories increased for a third month in December, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

An overnight attack at Obunoma, south of the Nigerian oil hub of Port Harcourt, cut supplies from the Nembe Creek, Soku, Belema and Ekulama fields, the Joint Revolutionary Council said in an e-mailed statement Sunday. Shell hasn't received any report of the attack, the company's Nigeria spokesman, Precious Okolobo, said Sunday.

March Brent crude, which expires Feb. 11, rose as much as US$1.23, or 1.8 percent, to US$70.82 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was at US$70.56 at 9:27 a.m. London time.

Hedge-fund managers and other large speculators reduced their bets on rising oil prices for a third week, according to U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data.

Speculative net-long positions, the difference between orders to buy and sell the commodity, fell 14 percent to 86,027 contracts on the New York exchange in the week ended Feb. 2, the Washington-based commission said in its weekly report.

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