NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures prices dipped on Monday as the high inventories in the United States continued to provide pressure even as uncertainty in the Middle East supported ICE Brent front-month April crude futures in London. A stronger dollar also helped provide some pressure on U.S. crude prices that ended at a 10-week low on Friday after news of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak's resignation eased concerns about potential disruption of oil supplies along the Suez Canal and a strategic pipeline. But protests in Yemen, Iran and Algeria highlighted the potential for protests that started in Tunisia and spread to Egypt to cause oil supply disruptions. Europe and the Brent market are seen as more immediately vulnerable to any Middle East supply disruption than the United States. Rising U.S. inventories, especially at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for NYMEX benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, weighed on prices and pushed the premium of the April contract to the front-month March contract CL-1=R to $4.00 a barrel intraday. "Recent (WTI/Brent) divergence was furthered overnight as an expected renewed upswing in Cushing supplies is pushing the front WTI contango to new wide territory ... while rising global equities, favorable economic news out of China and underlying Middle East unrest are supporting April Brent values," Jim Ritterbusch, president at Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois, wrote in a note. FUNDAMENTALS * On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March crude CLH1 slipped 7 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $85.51 a barrel at 8:48 a.m. EST (1348 GMT), trading from $85.13 to $85.83. * Iranian security forces deployed in the streets of Tehran to prevent a planned opposition rally in solidarity with popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that toppled their presidents, witnesses said. [ID:nLDE71D13Z] * Government backers armed with broken bottles, daggers and rocks chased down thousands of pro-reform demonstrators in Yemen's capital, turning unrest inspired by Egypt's uprising increasingly violent. [ID:nLDE71D12D] * China's trade surplus fell to its lowest in nine months in January after imports surged. [ID:nTOE71A01I] * China's crude oil imports in January rose 27 percent from a year-ago to the fourth highest on record, as refiners raised production and beefed up diesel inventories. [ID:nTOE64607F] * Hundreds of police in uniform and plainclothes marched in Cairo's Tahrir Square to show solidarity with protesters who toppled President Hosni Mubarak. [ID:nLDE71D12G] * U.S. heating demand this week is expected to be 24.2 percent below normal, the National Weather Service forecast. Heating oil demand will average 22.3 percent below normal, while heating demand for natural gas will average 23.9 percent below normal, the NWS said. [ID:nSGE71D06C] * Events in Egypt have helped to drive oil above $100 a barrel and the price cannot be explained by the balance of supply and demand, UAE Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamli said on Monday, adding the market was well-supplied. [ID:nLDE71D03A] * Diesel stocks held by China Petroleum and Chemical Corp or Sinopec Corp (0386.HK) surged 93 percent from late last year to a record as Asia's top refiner boosted crude oil throughput. Sinopec said that its February crude runs would be 2.4 percent higher than in January, when runs were up 3.7 percent from December. [ID:nTOE71D013] MARKETS NEWS * U.S. stock index futures edged lower after Wall Street posted two straight weeks of gains that drove indexes to new multi-year highs and investors worried the market is overextended. [.N] * World stocks edged toward last week's 30-month high as China's shrinking trade surplus underscored its robust domestic demand. [MKTS/GLOB] * The euro slipped to a three-week low against the dollar on reports that Germany's financial watchdog became involved in a rescue of ailing lender WestLB. The dollar index .DXY strengthened. [FRX/] * Gold held below $1,360 an ounce as a stronger dollar put it on the defensive. [GOL/] * Copper rose above $10,000 a tonne to near all-time peaks and tin hit a record high as supply tightness bolstered both metals, while a surprise jump in copper imports from top metals consumer China boosted sentiment. [MET/L] UPCOMING DATA/EVENTS * American Petroleum Institute oil inventory data at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday. * U.S. Energy Information Administration oil inventory data at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Wednesday. * U.S. Energy Information Administration natural gas storage data at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Thursday. 8:48 LAST NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT DAY AGO CHNG CHNG VOL VOL CLc1 85.51 -0.07 -0.1% 85.13 85.83 39,062 419,188 CLc2 89.45 0.31 0.4% 88.77 89.54 34,798 250,851 LCOc1 102.32 1.38 1.4% 100.91 102.40 53,381 18,897 RBc1 2.5032 0.0380 1.5% 2.4774 2.5053 1,661 45,758 RBc2 2.6479 0.0329 1.3% 2.6214 2.6485 2,156 37,173 HOc1 2.7335 0.0377 1.4% 2.7028 2.734 2,541 65,960 HOc2 2.7379 0.0351 1.3% 2.7050 2.7383 1,441 43,467 * NYMEX crude oil for March CLc1 fell 7 cents to $85.51 a barrel by 8:48 a.m. in volume of 39,062 lots. (Reporting by Robert Gibbons; Editing by John Picinich)

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