Oil surges to one-month high near $94

By Randy Fabi

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil surged to a one-month high above $94 a barrel on Monday after Venezuela threatened to stop sending oil to the world's top fuel consumer the United States.

U.S. crude traded up $2.24 to $94.01 a barrel by 1630 GMT, after climbing more than $3 on Friday.

Prices hit an intraday high of $94.72 a barrel, the highest since Jan. 10. London Brent rose $1.60 to $93.54.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made the threat on Sunday, after an Exxon Mobil lawsuit froze $12 billion of Venezuelan assets to step up Exxon's push for compensation from a nationalised oil project.

Chavez has frequently issued conditional threats to stop shipments to the United States, but has maintained supplies despite repeated clashes with Washington.

"We do not believe that there is any serious risk to oil supplies, but with the increased rhetoric we would be cautious before concluding that this development should be already fully discounted," said Olivier Jakob at Petromatrix.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said on Monday he expected Venezuela to respect international law.

Oil jumped more than 4 percent on Friday, the biggest gain in nearly two months, as production problems in the North Sea and Nigeria pushed aside fears that a U.S. recession would hurt fuel demand.