Brent crude topped US$100 a bar­rel for the first time since 2008 yes­ter­day, jump­ing more than one per cent on un­rest in Egypt and ris­ing de­mand ex­pec­ta­tions. Egypt­ian Pres­i­dent Hos­ni Mubarak over­hauled his gov­ern­ment in an at­tempt to defuse a pop­u­lar up­ris­ing that has raised con­cerns about oil ship­ments through the Suez Canal and a key pipeline run­ning through the coun­try.

The surge in Brent, which has climbed from US$70 a bar­rel in Au­gust on ris­ing glob­al de­mand, has al­so stirred wor­ries in con­sumer na­tions that a hike in fu­el prices could stall a glob­al eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery.

Of­fi­cials from the Or­ga­ni­za­tion of the Pe­tro­le­um Ex­port­ing Coun­tries (OPEC) said there was no short­age of oil in the mar­ket and no need to in­crease pro­duc­tion right now. Se­vere cold in parts of the North­ern Hemi­sphere this win­ter has al­so un­der­pinned oil's re­cent ral­ly. Sup­port­ive US Mid­west fac­to­ry ac­tiv­i­ty and firmer con­sumer spend­ing stoked de­mand ex­pec­ta­tions and helped turn crude strong­ly pos­i­tive.

In Lon­don, ICE Brent crude for March rose US$1.59 to set­tle at US$101.01 a bar­rel and reached US$101.73 in­tra­day, the high­est since prices touched US$103.29 on Sep­tem­ber 29, 2008.

US crude oil for March de­liv­ery rose US$2.85, or 3.19 per cent, to set­tle at US$92.19 a bar­rel, reach­ing US$92.84 in­tra­day, both the high­est since Oc­to­ber 2008. An­a­lysts and bro­kers had ex­pect­ed Brent's move over US$100 to help US crude push above US$92.58, the pre­vi­ous 2011 peak from Jan­u­ary 3.

"Mo­men­tum is up. Traders are buy­ing dips on fears that things could es­ca­late fur­ther in the Mid­dle East and spread to oth­er coun­tries," said Tom Bentz, bro­ker at BNP Paribas Com­mod­i­ty Fu­tures Inc in New York. Oil prices were chop­py ear­li­er, with traders re­assess­ing Fri­day's price surge af­ter fears about con­ta­gion failed to ma­te­ri­alise at the week­end. (Reuters)