UPDATE 12-Oil up 3 pct on euro zone plan, Kuwait export halt

* Berlin, Paris vow new crisis plan by end of October
* Biggest four-day gain for Brent since August 2009
* Kuwait oil exports halt due to strike - sources
* Shell declares force majeure on Nigerian Forcados

By Matthew Robinson
NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Oil rose nearly 3 percent on
Monday, extending gains into a fourth straight session after a
strike halted Kuwait's crude exports and France and Germany
pledged to come up with a plan to tackle the euro zone crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President
Nicolas Sarkozy promised on Sunday to unveil by the end of
October a comprehensive new package to resolve the debt crisis,
which has dragged on oil and other commodities for months.
Optimism toward a crisis resolution helped push up Brent
more than 9 percent over the past four sessions, the biggest
four-day gain since August 2009 as investors sold the dollar
and put cash into equities and commodities.
"There's an assumption there will be some kind of resolve
in the euro zone crisis," said Richard Ilczygszyn, senior
market strategist for MF Global in Chicago.
"We are seeing the shorts run for the hills in the euro and
all foreign currency versus the dollar. It brings up equities
and the green light for commodities is on right now."
Further support came after shipping sources said all oil
tanker traffic from Kuwait, one of the world's top five oil
exporters and a large supplier to Asia, had stopped as a
customs union went on strike.
November Brent crude futures settled $3.07 higher
at $108.95 a barrel, above the 20-day moving average. U.S.
November crude traded up $2.43 to settle at $85.41 a
barrel, breaking through the 20-day and 50-day moving
averages.
With oil investors closely watching the wider economy for
signals, U.S. crude's negative correlation to the U.S. dollar
has increased, touching the highest since November 2008 on a
25-day basis.
Brent trading volumes held close to the 30-day average,
exceeding those U.S. futures, which were 30 percent below that
average. Oil's gains were part of a wider commodity rally that
saw gold up more than 2 percent to near its highest in
two weeks, while copper notched a fourth day of gains.OPEC
Traders also weighed other supply factors, including word
from Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi over the weekend
that OPEC's top exporter had cut production to 9.39 million
barrels per day from 9.8 million bpd in August.
But Naimi said he did not see a decline in the kingdom's
exports as Libya restored production disrupted by civil war.
The loss of Libyan oil exports, an important feedstock for
European refiners, has helped push international benchmark
Brent crude to a record premium to U.S. oil futures this year.
The International Energy Agency said Libya may be able to
return to its pre-war-level oil output earlier than 2013 if oil
companies resume activities there as quickly as they seem to be
doing.
Additional support for Brent crude came after Shell declared force majeure on exports of Nigerian Forcados
crude for October to December following a sabotage attack on a
major pipeline.
US INVENTORIES
A Reuters poll of analysts ahead of weekly inventory data
forecast a 700,000-barrel build in crude inventories for the
week to Oct. 7 due to a rebound in imports and lower refinery
utilization, while distillate and gasoline stockpiles were seen
falling.
Inventory data will be delayed due to the Columbus Day
holiday in the United States, with the American Petroleum
Institute report due out on Wednesday, and the Energy
Information Administration's report coming out on Thursday.