NEW YORK—Crude futures were marginally higher Monday as investors grew more optimistic about the economic outlook.

Friday's report of fewer job losses in the U.S. in February plus news Monday that some Eurozone countries are planning to help Greece resolve its debt troubles offered support to the oil market.

But analysts cautioned that there has yet to be any concrete sign of a significant improvement in oil demand, especially in the U.S., due to the economic recovery, which could temper further gains.

Midmorning, light, sweet crude for April delivery was up 28 cents, or 0.3%, at $81.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had touched an eight-week intraday high of $82.41 a barrel earlier in the session. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was up 40 cents, or 0.5%, at $80.29 a barrel.

A strike squeezing French oil refineries spread Tuesday to facilities owned by ExxonMobil Corp., raising the pressure on Total SA and the government to ward off gas shortages.

Workers at an ExxonMobil-owned Esso depot joined in the walkout Tuesday to support their Total colleagues, who have been striking since last week over plans to close a plant in northern France.

The Esso depot in Port Jerome, on the English Channel, was closed before dawn for lack of workers, CGT union organizer Laurent Delaunay said. Workers at an Esso refinery in neighboring Notre-Dame-de-Gravenchon _ France's second-largest refinery _ were set to walk out later Tuesday.

ARLINGTON - How would you like to buy gasoline made from $30 domestic coal versus $75 imported oil?
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Researchers at the Unviersity of Texas at Arlington say they've found a practical way to make synthetic crude from inexpensive coal that's common in Texas.

People have been turning coal into oil for 100 years or more, but researchers at UTA say they've invented a better way to do it.

It is so much better that they expect to sign a deal with an oil company within weeks.

"This is East Texas lignite coal. We go from that to this really nice liquid," said Professor Brian Dennis of a light synthetic crude, easily refined into gasoline.

Professor Dennis and a team of scientists have been working on the process for about a year-and-a-half.

"I had the idea for this while I was walking to my car," he said. "I ran back to the lab and I started drawing it out in my notebook."

They only showed News 8 an early model reactor which doesn't look like much. The current reactor design is secret, extremely efficient, and emits no pollution, the UTA scientists said.

Britain has made 'all the preparations necessary' to protect the Falkland Islands, Gordon Brown said today.

His reassurance comes amid Argentinian efforts to control shipping in the region.

The Argentinian government has issued a decree that tightens control over shipping in the area ahead of British efforts to start oil and gas exploration off the islands' waters.