Oil holds gains on gasoline worry, African outages

SINGAPORE, May 11 (Reuters) - Brent crude held above a barrel on Friday as renewed supply disruption from Africa compounded worries about inadequate gasoline stock levels in the United States, just weeks ahead of peak summer driving season.

London Brent crude for the June contract was up 1 cent at .80 a barrel by 0241 GMT. It rose 59 cents on Thursday after a fire shut down a Congolese oilfield and more violence in Nigeria raised supply risks there.

U.S. light crude dipped 6 cents to .75.

On top of production concerns across the Atlantic, U.S. traders continue to fret over the state of gasoline stocks, which rose just 400,000 barrels last week, ending a 12-week decline that had dragged them far below seasonal norms.

''People are concerned about U.S. gasoline supply, which is in a big deficit versus last year and the five-year average. They are worried that even if runs do increase, stocks may be behind the normal curve,'' said Tony Nunan from Mitsubishi Corp.

At 89 percent of capacity, refinery operations remain below the 90 percent level that analysts say would give more comfort to the market before summer travel begins at the end of May.

Refinery runs have been curbed by snags on top of regular retooling works, leading to a heavy crude build as a result, despite disruptions in African supplies.

In the most recent violence in the Niger Delta, rebels took four American oil workers hostage on Wednesday. On Tuesday they blew up three oil pipelines belonging to Italy's Eni, halting daily output of 98,000 barrels per day.

''The oil market remains worried by the potential for oil supplies from Nigeria to continue to be disrupted by militant activity,'' said David Moore, strategist from Commonwealth Bank of Australia, in a daily briefing.

Adding to those concerns, Total shut its Nkossa field, which pumps 60,000 to 70,000 barrels of oil daily in Congo Republic, after a fire hit the platform.

A drop in North Sea shipments for four benchmark crude oil streams in June added to bullish sentiment. Shipments are expected to fall to around 1.14 million barrels per day in June, down from the 1.50 million barrels a day in the previous month.

But reports from shipping brokers and analysts that provisional ship chartering data showed a steep rise in Algerian shipments to the U.S. in May helped temper Thursday's price rise.

Price gains were also capped as two OPEC ministers told Reuters they did not expect the group to raise production levels at its next meeting in September.

REUTERS AM SSC0936