* Canadian city evacuees told to head to oil sand field
camps
* Fighting in Libya escalates, disrupts supplies
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, May 5 (Reuters) - Oil prices jumped by more than
one percent in early trading on Thursday as a huge wildfire in
Canada disrupted its oil sands production, while escalating
fighting in Libya threatened the North African nation's output.
International benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were
trading at $45.31 per barrel at 0031 GMT, up 69 cents or 1.6
percent from their last close.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 rose
75 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $44.53.
Traders said that WTI prices were driven up by an
uncontrolled wildfire in Canada that disrupted oil production in
the province of Alberta.
A massive wildfire has forced the evacuation of all 88,000
people in the western Canadian oil city of Fort McMurray and
burned down 1,600 structures, and has the potential to destroy
much of the town, authorities said on Wednesday.
With evacuees being told to head north towards Alberta's oil
sands fields, production at several facilities has been
disrupted, although the decline in output was unclear.
Brent was pushed higher by escalating fighting in Libya.
Libya's already crippled oil production is at risk of
further decline from a stand-off between rival eastern and
western political factions, which prevented a cargo belonging to
trading giant Glencore (LON:GLEN) from loading.
A Tripoli-based oil official warned the country's oil output
could fall by 120,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) if the
Benghazi-based National Oil Corporation (NOC), set up by the
rival eastern government, continues to block tankers loading for
Tripoli from the eastern Marsa el-Hariga port.
Investment firm ETF Securities said that unplanned outages
within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC), of which Libya is a member, stood above 2 million bpd,
the highest in at least five years.
Beyond these disruptions, ETF Securities said market
fundamentals were also turning bullish.
"Investor optimism for oil has markedly improved. We believe
the gains in price are sustainable and not just driven by
speculative gains. We are likely to be in a global oil supply
deficit by Q3 2016," said Nitesh Shah, director of commodity
strategy at ETF Securities.
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GRAPHIC-Map of the Fort McMurray fire http://tmsnrt.rs/1TtvIOD
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