Oil cut on Tuesday a five-day bull run, although prices were supported near $ 80 a strike of French oil workers, which could close more than half the nation's refining capacity.
U.S. crude futures for April down 37 cents to $ 79.94 a barrel by 0934 GMT. The March contract, which expired on Monday, marked $ 80.51 during the day for a maximum contract next month from 13 January.Brent crude fell 36 cents to $ 78.25.
Strikes at refineries Total has entered its seventh day. The workers are protesting against the French company's plan to close one of its six refineries permanently by weak demand for fuel.
In all refineries, production has been suspended.Workers at both Exxon French refineries have approved suspension of work in solidarity with their counterparts from Total.
The generalization of the measures of force has led to the intervention of President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met with the CEO of Total Christophe de Margerie on Tuesday morning. Earlier, the Government asked motorists to remain calm.
Motorists flocked to the stations, while the oil sector group UFIP said Monday that France was about seven days of fuel supply.Analysts said the strike raised concerns about a potential shortage of gasoline, raising prices of petroleum products and crude oil futures supported, although refinery outages generally translate into lower demand for physical crude oil .
"I see that the market will remain relatively high due to this fear by a strike in France," said Andy Sommer, an energy analyst at Swiss EGL. "We know how quickly they adjusted the basics, or how long.
Later in the day the market's attention will go to the weekly inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute, at 2130 GMT.
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