Crude traded near a three-day high after France pushed for faster enforcement of an Iranian import ban and Saudi Arabia’s oil minister was reported as saying the world’s biggest exporter wants to keep prices at $100 a barrel.

Futures traded above $99 at the highest since Jan. 11. Saudi Arabia’s wish is to stabilize prices this year, Ali al- Naimi said in an interview with CNN yesterday. France wants the European Union embargo delayed by no more than three months to allow some nations time to find alternative supplies, an official with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Iran, OPEC’s second largest producer, has threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz in response to international sanctions.

“The embargo story is certainly not going away,” said David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, who forecasts U.S. crude will average $110 a barrel this year. “The Saudi’s came out and said they were looking to target oil at about $100 a barrel, I suspect that’s what he driver has been.”

Crude for February delivery was at $99.67 a barrel, up 97 cents from the close on Jan. 13 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:31 a.m. in Sydney. Floor trading in New York was closed yesterday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the day’s electronic trades will be booked with today’s for settlement purposes.

Brent oil for February settlement rose 76 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $111.20 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange yesterday, when the contract expired. The more- active March future gained 0.9 percent to $111.34. The European benchmark contract’s premium to West Texas Intermediate futures closed at $11.56, compared with a record $27.88 on Oct. 14.

Saudi Arabia can make up for any loss of crude production if sanctions are placed on Iran, CNN said, citing al-Naimi. The minister said he doesn’t expect the Strait of Hormuz to be shut for an extended length of time. The strait is a transit route for about a fifth of global oil trade.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski atakwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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