Oil resumes climb to $ 100, supply concerns revive

LONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) Oil shrugged off U.S. growth concerns to climb towards the 0 milestone on Friday, fuelled by supply disruptions ahead of peak winter demand and tracking the dollar's dip to new lows.

U.S. crude for December delivery rose 89 cents to .35 a barrel by 0920 GMT, off early-session highs of .48.

London Brent crude rose 64 cents to .43.

Oil had fallen on Thursday, its second straight day of losses, after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted the twin threats of slower growth and inflation for the U.S. economy, triggering profit-taking that pulled oil further back from its record high .62 earlier this week.

''Despite a 'shot across the bow' warning on growth coming from...the Fed chairman, commodity markets should be able to hold their own in the days ahead as they will need to see evidence of a demand slowdown before they correct themselves,'' said Edward Meir at MF Global.

''In energy's case, we seem to be regrouping... as we attempt yet again to take out the 0 mark on crude.'' The dollar's slide to yet another record low against the euro on Friday helped maintain the allure of oil for financial investors and speculators who have helped lift oil by 40 percent since mid-August.

The loss of North Sea production due to a storm, coupled with a weeks-long outage at a diesel refinery unit in Texas, added to fears of a supply shortage, although supplies were not expected to be hit as hard as initially feared.

BP's Norwegian unit said it expected production at its 80,000 barrels per day Valhall oilfield to restart later on Friday, while Norway's StatoilHydro said it had restarted one field and would probably restart another.

''There is still a lot of bullish news out in the market and I think investors are returning their focus on the short-term supply concerns now,'' said David Moore, a resource analyst in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

In Texas, a diesel hydrotreater at Valero Energy Corp's 325,000 bpd Port Arthur refiner is likely to remain shut for two to four weeks after a fire on Thursday, sources said.

REUTERS BJR HS1515