April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose on concern supplies from Nigeria will be disrupted just as demand for gasoline is surging.

Nigeria is counting votes today after a presidential poll last week that's been criticized for fraud. Militant attacks in Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, have already cut about a quarter of its output. U.S. gasoline demand is climbing twice as fast as last year's and will accelerate when summer travel begins next month.

``Demand is surprisingly strong and the stockpiles have fallen much more than we expected,'' Jakob Schoechli, an analyst at Clariden Leu, said from Zurich. ``In general, America has a deficit and needs to import fuel from Europe, so there could be higher gasoline prices in the U.S.''

Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as 43 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $64.54 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and traded at $64.42 at 1:19 p.m. in London.

Presidential elections in Nigeria should be canceled and held again because of irregularities, one of the candidates, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, said yesterday. Observers said turnout figures of 81 percent were fraudulent.

Nigeria was the fifth-largest source of U.S. oil imports last year. Its benchmark crudes are light and low in sulfur, making them especially sought after for refining into gasoline.

``The market moved up this morning on the back of elections in Nigeria,'' said Herwin Schonewille, an oil trader with Fortis Bank NV in Brussels. ``The Belgian refiners may go on strike.''

Belgian Strike

Belgian oil workers are ready to strike May 9 and shut down four refineries in Antwerp after the refinery companies failed to meet demands for a higher bonus and more salary, Rik van Leeth, a union leader, said last week. The refineries have a combined processing capacity of more than 600,000 barrels a day.

``There is still some time to see if they can sort it out,'' Schonewille said. ``If they proceed with the strike, quite some barrels will be taken out of the market. That could possibly have an impact on the gasoline imports in the U.S.''

Brent crude oil for June gained as much as 86 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $67.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the ICE Futures exchange. It was trading at $67.24 at 1:19 p.m. in London.

Gasoline demand in the U.S., the world's largest oil consumer, peaks between the Memorial Day holiday in late May and Labor Day in early September. The U.S. imported an average 14.5 million barrels of gasoline a month last year. Europe accounted for 73 percent of the imports in January, according to Energy Department data.

Capacity utilization at U.S. refineries reached a 14-week high of 90.4 percent in the week ended April 13, slowing a 10-week drop in stockpiles, the U.S. Energy Department reported last week.

``Supplies for crude oil are good,'' Schoechli said. `The bottleneck at the moment is with gasoline.''

Gasoline Prices

U.S. pump prices for regular gasoline rose an average 11 percent to $2.852 a gallon yesterday from a month ago, according to the American Automobile Association, the nation's biggest motoring club. Prices rose above $3 a gallon the past two summers.

China's National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planner, said it expected oil prices to rise in the second quarter from the first as the U.S. summer approaches. Prices may ``surge drastically'' if tension between Iran and the U.S. escalates, it said.

Iran faces international pressure over its nuclear research. The United Nations Security Council gave Iran 60 days from March 24 to suspend uranium enrichment. Since then, Iran has pushed ahead with production of nuclear fuel.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, will meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, in the Turkish capital of Ankara on April 25, Solana said. It will be their first meeting for more than two months.

Expressed in U.S. dollars, West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark crude traded in New York, has fallen about 13 percent in the past 12 months. Oil has dropped about 20 percent in euros, 21 percent in British pounds and 10 percent in yen.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 23, 2007 08:33 EDT