Oil rose to a three-day high after France pushed for faster enforcement of a ban on Iranian imports and Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said the world’s biggest exporter wants to keep prices at $100 a barrel.

Futures traded above $100 and were poised for the highest close since Jan. 11. Saudi Arabia aim to stabilize prices this year, Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with CNN. France wants the European Union embargo delayed by no more than three months as members try to find alternative supplies, an official with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Iran, OPEC’s second- largest producer, has threatened to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in response to international sanctions.

“The embargo story is certainly not going away,” said David Lennox, an analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney who forecasts U.S. crude will average $110 a barrel this year. “The Saudis came out and said they were looking to target oil at about $100 a barrel. I suspect that’s what the driver has been.”

Crude for February delivery was at $100.12 a barrel, up $1.32 from the close on Jan. 13 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 3:13 p.m. in Sydney. Floor trading in New York was closed yesterday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and the day’s electronic trades will be booked along with today’s when the settlement is calculated.

Brent oil for March settlement gained 0.7 percent to $111.92 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract’s premium to West Texas Intermediate futures was at $11.66, compared with $11.56 yesterday and a record $27.88 on Oct. 14.

China’s economy expanded 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in Beijing today. While growth fell below 9 percent for the first time since mid-2009, it exceeded the 8.7 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 26 economists.

European Embargo

While France is seeking a shorter exemption for existing crude purchase contracts, other EU nations favor a six-month delay, which remains the more-likely compromise, said a second person, an EU diplomat, who also asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential.

EU foreign ministers are scheduled to decide on the ban, which will probably also include an exemption for Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest oil company, at a Jan. 23 meeting. The embargo requires unanimity among the bloc’s 27 states.

Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, can make up for any loss of crude output if sanctions are placed on Iran, CNN said yesterday, citing al-Naimi. The minister said he doesn’t expect the Strait of Hormuz to be shut for an extended length of time. The strait is a transit route for about a fifth of global oil trade.