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LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices lapse on weekday but held nearby 2-1/2 assemblage highs, with Brent remaining near to $121 a containerful on unrest in lubricator mercantilism countries in the Middle East and Africa.

A Western expose accomplish blasted digit of Muammar Gaddafi's expeditionary vehicles in the easterly African lubricator municipality of Brega on weekday allowing rebels to bounds forward, but smooth efforts to modify the war remained stalled.

The stalemate fueled fears of a prolonged expiration of lubricator exports from Libya despite reports that a prototypal cargo of vulgar lubricator is cod to be unexploded by rebels on Tuesday.

Brent vulgar for May lapse 70 cents to $120.36 a containerful at 1130 GMT, after approaching at $121.06 a containerful on Monday, the maximal settlement since August 1, 2008.

U.S. vulgar lapse 69 cents to $107.82 a containerful after sinking at $107.78 on Monday, the maximal since September 22, 2008.

"It's looking overbought and we strength wager a bit of a rebuke now, but now that Brent has busted above $120 it's hornlike to put a top on it," said Rob Montefusco, an lubricator trader at Sucden Financial.

The fourth Asiatic welfare rate raise since Oct shortly triggered a fall of around $1 a containerful in lubricator prices, but markets pared the magnitude of losses on reports of boost clashes in West Africa on Tuesday.

"The mart doesn't seem that discomposed about Asiatic interests rates some more, which seems totally crazy to me," said David Morrison, a contriver at GFT.

TIGHT SUPPLY?

The representation of dripless fundamentals has helped causing toll gains on relatively diminutive creation interruptions, which hit been compounded by the erosion of spare power from top exporter Arabian Arabia, analysts said.

The land has upraised cater and introduced device grades of lubricator to help fill in for missing African output, but traders discourse how such more room for creation increases remains.

Worries about lubricator cater also focused on Nigeria after elections there were postponed by a hebdomad cod to supplying problems, sparking choler among voters who were promised a fortuity with a story of flawed and ferocious polls.

"We hit already forfeited beatific grades in Libya, and now the elections in Nigeria are providing boost possibleness upside," continuing Montefusco.

"OPEC haw be titled on to increase production, but the discourse is, how such spare power hit they rattling got?"

Nigeria has a story of argumentative elections and militants there hit previously hit lubricator supplies, a sweet vulgar that has jumped to a payment as a result of the African outages.

However, creation was restarting in Gabon, which produces a similar evaluate of oil, after forcefulness miss strikes completely revilement soured the country's nearby 240,000 bpd of output. Total and Shell, key producers in Gabon, both said they were working to restore normal creation as soon as possible.

"Anything that affects Brent or Africa is feat to be important, especially low the underway status in Libya," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.

Delayed loading of individual cargoes of Forties vulgar -- which typically sets the take of the dated Brent benchmark -- module add to cater pressure.

The reduction of U.S. vulgar futures to Brent widened to $12.64 at 0938 GMT, gaining near to $2 a containerful since the move of change this week, but remained extreme from a record $17.12 a containerful spread at the move of March.

Former Arabian lubricator minister Sheikh Zaki minister told Reuters the U.S. would continue to be dependent on exports from Arabian peninsula despite plans to revilement lubricator imports by a ordinal over the incoming decade announced by U.S. President Barack Obama terminal week.

He said lubricator prices could move to $200 to $300 a containerful if Arabian peninsula is hit by earnest political unrest.

Weekly business and government petroleum inventory reports are prognosticate to show a 1.4 million physique in U.S. vulgar inventories, a 1.9 million containerful fall in gasoline stockpiles and a 200,000 containerful drop in distillates, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.

(Additional reporting by Seng Li Peng and saint Webb in Singapore; redaction by James Jukwey)

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