Oil up as Nigeria strike concerns resurface

LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) Oil resumed its upward march on Thursday, shrugging off steep falls a day earlier triggered by bearish U.S. data, as the market turned its focus back to a strike in Nigeria and OPEC doused hopes of an output increase.

Oil supplies from Africa's top oil exporter were as yet unaffected on the second day of the general strike that has paralysed most economic activity in Nigeria, with loading of tankers at export terminals continuing normally.

Unions had threatened to withdraw key staff from loading terminals on Thursday to stop exports and exert more pressure on the government to reverse an increase in fuel prices.

''We are not seeing any impact on loadings at the moment,'' a shipping agent said.

But that did little to reassure the market, which remained concerned about the strike's potential to disrupt supplies from the world's eighth biggest oil exporter when prices are already high.

London benchmark Brent crude was up 87 cents at $71.29 a barrel by 1340 GMT, recovering some of Wednesday's $1.42 fall.

U.S. light crude was up 70 cents at $69.56.

Oil, which has climbed steadily from around $50 in January, touched a 10-month high of $72.25 on Monday, bringing it within sight of an all-time high above $78 hit last August.

''The main catalyst spurring the rebound in crude prices is certainly the situation in Nigeria, which is apparently deteriorating by the moment,'' TFS Energy analyst Addison Armstrong wrote in a research note.

Nigerian troops on Thursday dislodged militants occupying an oil facility operated by Italy's Eni, where the company had said 27 people including 11 soldiers had been held since the facility was overrun on Sunday.

OPEC Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) played down any expectations the exporter group could boost output, saying such a move was unnecessary and would only add to ample oil stocks in consumer nations.

''As we see it now there is no shortage,'' OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri told reporters ahead of a regular meeting with EU officials at OPEC's Vienna headquarters.

''There is a lot of oil on the market, the stocks are very high. If we add more oil it would not go to the refineries -- it would go to the stocks.'' European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said there was no shortage of crude oil in the market, but called on OPEC to steer away from output restrictions.

''We are saying: don't make any restriction and open your production according to how each company and each country feels the market should be supplied,'' he said.

Oil fell sharply on Wednesday after U.S. data showed an unexpected 6.9 million-barrel jump in crude inventories to their highest since May 1998, but later pared those losses as dealers discounted the build and fretted over fuel supplies.

Although gasoline stocks rose a higher-than-expected 1.8 million barrels, refinery utilisation rates shocked traders by falling further, with plants using just 87.6 percent of capacity at a time they normally run nearer 95 percent.

While profit margins are strong, refiners have struggled to keep up with unrelenting demand growth because of unexpected outages and tighter fuel specifications, analysts say.

Some analysts said the large crude inventory build was a statistical anomaly, the result of moving millions of barrels of crude oil stored offshore into onshore tanks.

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