Oil edges up, eyeing Nigeria vote, McKee refinery

SINGAPORE, Apr 16 (Reuters) Oil inched up on Monday as some traders were unconvinced by reassurances on U.S. summer gasoline supplies, and looked ahead toward elections in major exporter Nigeria and rising crude demand in the United States.

U.S. light, sweet crude for May delivery, which expires on Friday, rose 14 cents to .77 a barrel by 0417 GMT after slipping 22 cents on Friday. London Brent crude , which hit a 2007 high on Friday, stood 18 cents higher at .81.

Gasoline took the market spotlight last week, leading a rally until they swiftly reversed course on Friday after U.S.

Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said he was ''relatively confident'' of sufficient gasoline supplies during the summer.

U.S. gasoline futures , which fell 0.55 percent on Friday, deepened losses by a further 0.6 percent to SINGAPORE, Apr 16 (Reuters) Oil inched up on Monday as some traders were unconvinced by reassurances on U.S. summer gasoline supplies, and looked ahead toward elections in major exporter Nigeria and rising crude demand in the United States.

U.S. light, sweet crude for May delivery, which expires on Friday, rose 14 cents to $63.77 a barrel by 0417 GMT after slipping 22 cents on Friday. London Brent crude , which hit a 2007 high on Friday, stood 18 cents higher at $68.81.

Gasoline took the market spotlight last week, leading a rally until they swiftly reversed course on Friday after U.S.

Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said he was ''relatively confident'' of sufficient gasoline supplies during the summer.

U.S. gasoline futures , which fell 0.55 percent on Friday, deepened losses by a further 0.6 percent to $2.1660 a gallon on Monday, but are still up 40 percent since mid-February amid strong demand growth and a spate of refinery hiccups that has cut stock levels by 12 percent.

''There are a lot of mixed signals, but gasoline is the story of the day heading into demand season with inventories at close to five-year lows,'' said Tony Nunan of Mitsubishi Corp.

The gasoline strength contrasts with weakness in the prompt crude oil market, which has been weighed down by swollen stockpiles in the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for the contract. Front-month May U.S. crude is $4 below third-month July and hit a record discount of nearly $7 versus Brent last week.

Late on Friday, Valero Energy Corp. said it was restarting its 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, whose outage since mid-February was a leading cause of the buildup in Cushing crude stocks.

Valero had previously said that output would rise from 85,000 to 115,000 bpd by May, but that it would not reach full capacity again until year-end at the soonest. [ID:nN13225464] But traders said last week that other planned refinery turnarounds in the area may keep crude stocks at high levels.

NIGERIA ON RADAR Oil traders are also on alert over Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest exporter, for fear that presidential elections on April 21 could spark violence that further disrupts oil output, which has been cut by one-fifth for more than a year.

Election irregularities in state polls over the weekend -- a precursor to the presidential vote that is to be the country's first democratic transition of power -- sparked opposition parties to burn buildings, block roads and barricade election offices, but did not disrupt oil flows.

[ID:nL15611304] ''It seems that things maybe aren't as bad as we thought they might be,'' said Nunan. ''But the big thing is the presidential election. The question will be whether whether the new president has full support.'' An unusual late-season blast of frigid weather in the U.S.

Northeast, a voracious consumer of winter heating oil, may add to price support. Icy rain and gale-force winds hit the region on Sunday, with rare April snow expected. [nN15228737] Speculators in the NYMEX crude market boosted their net long positions to the highest level in eight months in the week to April 10, regulators data showed on Friday. [ID:nN08641946] REUTERS SR HT1222 .1660 a gallon on Monday, but are still up 40 percent since mid-February amid strong demand growth and a spate of refinery hiccups that has cut stock levels by 12 percent.

''There are a lot of mixed signals, but gasoline is the story of the day heading into demand season with inventories at close to five-year lows,'' said Tony Nunan of Mitsubishi Corp.

The gasoline strength contrasts with weakness in the prompt crude oil market, which has been weighed down by swollen stockpiles in the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for the contract. Front-month May U.S. crude is below third-month July and hit a record discount of nearly versus Brent last week.

Late on Friday, Valero Energy Corp. said it was restarting its 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas, whose outage since mid-February was a leading cause of the buildup in Cushing crude stocks.

Valero had previously said that output would rise from 85,000 to 115,000 bpd by May, but that it would not reach full capacity again until year-end at the soonest. [ID:nN13225464] But traders said last week that other planned refinery turnarounds in the area may keep crude stocks at high levels.

NIGERIA ON RADAR Oil traders are also on alert over Nigeria, the world's eighth-largest exporter, for fear that presidential elections on April 21 could spark violence that further disrupts oil output, which has been cut by one-fifth for more than a year.

Election irregularities in state polls over the weekend -- a precursor to the presidential vote that is to be the country's first democratic transition of power -- sparked opposition parties to burn buildings, block roads and barricade election offices, but did not disrupt oil flows.

[ID:nL15611304] ''It seems that things maybe aren't as bad as we thought they might be,'' said Nunan. ''But the big thing is the presidential election. The question will be whether whether the new president has full support.'' An unusual late-season blast of frigid weather in the U.S.

Northeast, a voracious consumer of winter heating oil, may add to price support. Icy rain and gale-force winds hit the region on Sunday, with rare April snow expected. [nN15228737] Speculators in the NYMEX crude market boosted their net long positions to the highest level in eight months in the week to April 10, regulators data showed on Friday. [ID:nN08641946] REUTERS SR HT1222