INSTANT VIEW: Front month oil spikes $21 on expiry day

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures for October delivery surged more than $20 a barrel on Monday, the biggest gain on record, on the day the contract expires.

Crude oil for delivery in November was up only about $6 a barrel in much more active trade.

Below are analyst comments:

AMANDA KURZENDOERFER, COMMODITIES ANALYST, SUMMIT ENERGY, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY:

"The market went crazy here and it looks like the weakness of the dollar was a fuel for the sharp price increase. NYMEX October crude was also expiring and that provoked short-covering."

TOM BENTZ, ANALYST, BNP PARIBAS, NEW YORK:

"The dollar is getting killed, the expiration of the October contract, inventories in Cushing are very low, many Gulf refineries are coming back up. And the bailout package is viewed as support for the economy."

DANIEL FLYNN, ANALYST, ALARON TRADING, CHICAGO:

"The run here in crude was the weaker dollar and with October going off the board they just put a short squeeze on it and just ran it up."

PETER BEUTEL, ANALYST, CAMERON HANOVER, NEW CANAAN, CONNECTICUT:

"It starts with the $700 billion bailout. Then we have the October contract expiring. Then we had all this bullish news from Russia to OPEC. We had been focusing so much on the demand dropping that the $700 billion takes that off the table. The dollar is down, the stocks are down and now investulators are jumping back into oil."

TOM KNIGHT, TRADER, TRUMAN ARNOLD, TEXARKANA, TEXAS:

"Short squeeze, crude expiration-- that's it in a nutshell. The dollar did drop further today, but you'll note that the October-November crude spread blew way, way out."

CHRIS JARVIS, CAPROCK RISK MANAGEMENT, NEW HAMPSHIRE:

"With the dollar sinking more in one day against the Euro since April 2001, it's no surprise that commodities, and more specifically oil, are spiking higher"