Iran has been referred to the United Nations Security Council, which could impose sanctions to halt the country's nuclear research. The threat of Iran's retaliating by cutting oil exports is propping up crude prices, analysts said. "Problems with Iran are still in people's minds,'' said Christopher Bellew, a broker with Bache Financial Ltd. in London. "There was a steep fall last week.'' Crude oil for March delivery rose 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $59.74 a barrel at 12:33 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 2.7 percent yesterday, closing below $60 a barrel for the first time this year. Brent crude for April settlement added 14 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $59.66 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange. The International Atomic Energy Agency may formalize Iran's referral to the United Nations Security Council on March 6, which could result in economic sanctions on the world's fourth-largest oil producer. Iran and Russia will meet on Feb. 20 to discuss a proposal for breaking a deadlock over the Iranian nuclear program. U.S. supplies A weekly report from the U.S. Energy Department today will probably show supplies of crude rose by 1 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 10 from 320.7 million the week before, according to the median forecast of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The 320.7 million-barrel stockpile reported for the week of Feb. 3 was 11 percent higher than the average supply over the past five years, last week's Energy Department report said. Gasoline stockpiles probably rose 1.6 million barrels from 223.3 million, according to the Bloomberg News survey. Inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, probably declined 1 million barrels from 136 million the prior week. The U.S. Energy Department will publish its weekly report on supply today at 10:30 a.m. Washington time. A warm winter has cut fuel needs, leaving U.S. stockpiles higher. New York City had its third-warmest January since records started in 1869, according to the U.S. government. Refineries buy less crude when they shut for maintenance during the lull between producing heating fuel for winter and making gasoline for summer. Refineries operated at 86 percent of capacity in the week ended Feb. 3 and probably ran at about the same level the following week, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. ``Refineries were going down for maintenance in the past couple of weeks,'' said Sam Tilley, an analyst at the London futures brokerage Sucden U.K. Ltd. Oil ``is bouncing from yesterday's drop. The market came down heavily in the last few weeks.'' Gasoline rose for the first time in more than a week. The contract for March gained as much as 2.46 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $1.4095 a gallon in after-hours trading. Prices plunged 3.2 percent to $1.3849 a gallon yesterday, the lowest in almost a year. PIN/BLOOMBERG