UPDATE 9-Oil hits three-month high on upbeat data, Middle East tension

* White House adviser expects China trade deal signing soon
* U.S. carries out air strikes in Iraq, Syria
* Iraq Nassiriya oilfield restarts production

(Updates with CFTC data)
By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday to
three-month highs, lifted by optimism over an expected
China-U.S. trade deal and upbeat industrial data, while traders
kept a close watch on the Middle East following U.S. air strikes
in Iraq and Syria.
International benchmark Brent LCOc1 reached $68.99 a
barrel, while U.S. crude futures CLc1 hit $62.34 a barrel,
both the highest since Sept. 17. For the year, Brent has risen
around 27% in 2019, and the U.S. benchmark is up about 36%.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 28 cents to settle at
$68.44 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1
futures fell 4 cents to settle at $61.68 a barrel.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News in an
interview that the U.S.-China Phase 1 trade deal would likely be
signed in the next week. He cited but did not confirm a report that Chinese Vice
Premier Liu He would visit this week to sign the deal.
"Washington has sent an invitation and Beijing has accepted
it," the South China Morning Post quoted a source as saying.
The trade war between the world's two largest economies has
hurt market sentiment around the world.
"U.S.-China trade optimism continues to spur demand for
risky assets such as oil, other industrial commodities,
equities," Jim Ritterbusch, president of trading advisory firm
Ritterbusch and Associates, said in a note.
In China, factory activity likely expanded again in
December, although markets await details on the trade truce, a
Reuters poll showed. Elsewhere, investors are closely watching events in the
Middle East after the United States carried out air strikes on
Sunday against the Kataib Hezbollah militia group, while
protesters in Iraq on Saturday briefly forced the closure of its
southern Nassiriya oilfield. Operations resumed on Monday.
Libyan state oil firm NOC said it was considering closure of
its western Zawiya port and evacuating staff from the refinery
because of clashes nearby. Looking ahead to 2020, some analysts cited abundant global
crude stocks as a major obstacle to efforts to rein in output by
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its
allies such as Russia.
"Even as OPEC and its non-OPEC partners endeavour to make
additional supply cuts in Q1 2020, we are not convinced this
will be sufficient to avert large global inventory," said Harry
Tchilinguirian, global oil strategist at BNP Paribas.
"We remain of the opinion that oil fundamentals continue to
present downside risk."
Money managers raised net long U.S. crude futures and
options positions in the week to Dec. 24, the U.S. Commodity
Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Monday. The speculator
group raised its combined futures and options position in New
York and London by 17,051 contracts to 312,375 during the
period.