NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange extended gains at midday Wednesday on news that the United Nations had ordered its American and British staff to leave Iraq for safety reasons.
At 1250 EST/17501 GMT, front month crude was up 34 cents at $12.63, easing a bit from its midday high of $12.68. Before the news hit the newswires at 1208 EST/1708 GMT, the front month contract was trading at $12.45.
Refined products remained mixed, with front month heating oil posting gains of nearly half a cent and front month gasoline moving down about a quarter-cent.
Front month heating oil traded at 32.90 cents, up 0.56 cent. The contract traded between 31.90/33.05 cents.
March gasoline pared losses and was down 0.06 at 37.55 cents a gallon, trading between 36.80/37.75 cents.
Traders said the market was already moving up on a stream of shortcovering just before 1200 EST, but the news from the U.N. pushed the market higher.
Traders had attributed the early surge in shortcovering to "post-API recovery."
The industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) had reported late Tuesday a larger-than-expected crude stockbuild of 6.1 million barrels for the week ended Jan. 29.
The market moved lower at the opening but later recovered to near its Tuesday closing on moderate shortcovering.
Traders explained that the market had slipped in the past two days anticipating the big crude build.
"With the build factored in and after some followthrough selling early, the market was moving technically and was heading to test resistance," said a NYMEX trader.
"The news from the U.N. added to the momentum," he added.
According to a U.N. spokesman, there are about two U.S. citizens remaining in Baghdad whom Iraq exempted from expulson last month when it presented a list of one American and 14 Britons working in the northern part of the country it wanted out of Iraq.
Since Iraq's directive, many of the Britons have not returned, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi oil exports should not be affected by the U.N. order as none of the oil monitors present there are from those countries, an industry source familiar with monitoring procedures said on Wednesday.
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