Crude surges above $95 on supply woes

London: Oil soared above $95 a barrel on Thursday, supported by supply concerns and better than expected economic data from the US and Japan, the largest and third-largest oil consumers.

Refinery snags and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) producer Venez-uela's move to halt sales to ExxonMobil in the midst of a legal row stoked the price run-up.

"A number of supply-driven factors have reminded the market of how thin spare capacity of production really is - Nigeria, North Sea glitches and geopolitical tension," said Harry Tchilinguirian of BNP Paribas.

"Added to that, positive surprises in US retail sales and Japanese GDP growth last quarter, and equities and oil markets are better oriented."

US crude was up $1.93 at $95.20 a barrel by 1554 GMT after rising as high as $95.33 - the highest level since January 10. Brent crude was up $1.97 at $95.29.

Oil and equities also got a boost from Wednesday's US retail sales data, which eased fears of a consumer spending collapse, and much stronger-than-forecast Japanese growth, reported yesterday.

Japan's economy expanded by 0.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, more than double forecasts. Oil in the US has been trading in a narrow range near $90 a barrel as fears of a US recession prevent oil from revisiting an all-time high of $100.09 hit on January 3.

Crude stocks in the world's top consumer rose 1.1 million barrels last week, according to US government data, less than the 2.7 million barrels forecast by analysts.

But while the legal battle between Venezuela and ExxonMobil escalates, analysts said the move to cut off oil shipments would have little impact on US supplies or the US oil company.

Major oil producers in the Middle East have assured the US they could compensate for a supply disruption if Venezuela slows exports in its dispute with Exxon, a US official said on Wednesday.

"The short-term impact will be there, but in the long term, I think they will aggressively get the capacity from elsewhere and meet their demand," said Justin Wilks, director of trading of the index-based Global Commodities fund group in Australia.

Venezuela was scheduled to present legal arguments yesterday in response to temporary court rulings won by ExxonMobil that freeze up to $12 billion in Venezuelan assets, the country's oil minister said.