* Israeli bombings, Palestinian rocket attacks continue
* Gulf of Mexico oil platform fire helps boost U.S. crude
* December U.S. oil futures expire
(Updates throughout)
NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Oil rose on Friday as a fire on
a Gulf of Mexico platform and the escalating conflict between
Israel and Palestinians stoked supply concerns.
News of the fire at a Black Elk platform in morning U.S.
activity helped crude extend early gains, although the Coast
Guard later said it had not been producing oil at the time of
the fire, which helped calm market jitters. Two workers were
missing and four others injured by the fire.
"Traders who had been long Brent/short WTI (U.S. crude) on
the Middle East fears reversed that when the platform fire news
broke," said Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in
Chicago.
The market was already on edge after Iraq's envoy to the
Arab League said in Cairo it would invite Arab states to use oil
as a weapon to press for a halt to Israeli attacks on Gaza. He
later appeared to withdraw the remark, saying Baghdad would make
no particular proposal to a League meeting.
The conflict has gripped oil markets, which have been
looking for any signs it could impact Middle East supplies.
Israeli ministers were on Friday asked to endorse the call-up of
up to 75,000 reservists after Palestinian militants nearly hit
Jerusalem with a rocket for the first time in decades and fired
at Tel Aviv for a second day.
Trading was volatile with the U.S. December crude contract
expiring at the end of Friday's session, following the
Brent December contract's expiry the day before.
Expiring U.S. December crude traded up $1.22
to settle at $86.67 a barrel. The more heavily traded U.S.
January crude gained $1.05 to settle at $86.92 a
barrel. Front-month January Brent crude rose 94 cents to
settle at $108.95 a barrel.
Data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
(CFTC) showed that oil speculators increased their net long
positions by 16,312 positions in the week to Nov. 13.
FISCAL CLIFF HANGER
Congressional leaders emerged from a meeting with President
Barack Obama on Friday and said they would work to find common
ground on taxes and spending.
A deal would keep the economy away from the looming "fiscal
cliff" -- year-end automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, which
could result in another recession and also stifle oil demand.
A report on Friday showing Hurricane Sandy hit U.S.
industrial output in October followed other indications of the
storm affecting the economy, including a rise in initial jobless
last week and a slump in factory activity in the mid-Atlantic
region struck by Sandy.
(Additional reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, Simon Falush and
Peg Mackey in London and Manash Goswami in Singapore; editing by
Gary Crosse and David Gregorio)