* U.S. crude inventories fall sharply, but gasoline up
* Shell lifts force majeure, but new fears emerge in
Nigeria
* China net fuel imports down in June versus May
(Updates prices, adds comments)
By Felicia Loo
SINGAPORE, July 10 (Reuters) - Oil steadied around $136 a
barrel on Thursday, stemming losses of about 4 percent the past
two days, as worries over falling U.S. crude stocks were
countered by a surprise increase in gasoline supply.
U.S. crude <CLc1> for August ticked 8 cents higher at
$136.13 a barrel by 0754 GMT, dwindling from an intra-day high
of $136.90.
But U.S. crude, which has gained more than 40 percent so
far this year, was off the record high of $145.85 hit on July
3.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> rose 30 cents to $136.88 a
barrel.
A fall in U.S. crude oil stocks by 5.9 million barrels last
week, more than triple what analysts projected, highlighted
lingering concerns over supply.
"The key driver is the oil stock draw in the United States
after a few days of a strong decline in prices," said Gerard
Burg of the National Australia Bank in Melbourne.
Inventories fell to 293.9 million barrels, with the draw
largely along the West Coast, due to a renewed drop in imports,
the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its report
for the week ended July 4. []
The fall came as domestic refineries cranked up runs by
75,000 million barrels per day (bpd) to 15.49 million bpd.
However, the stock fall failed to stir up prices to a big
extent.
"Two months of nearly uninterrupted weekly draws have
accustomed the market to the notion that such de-stocking is
more bearish than bullish, reflecting as it does refiners'
cost-cutting efforts in the face of record prices, falling
product demand and tight credit," said Antoine Halff from
Newedge USA, LLC, in a report.
U.S. gasoline supplies rose by 900,000 barrels to 211.8
million barrels last week, despite the peak summer driving
season. The forecast was for a draw of 200,000 barrels.
Weaker gasoline demand in the United States began to bite,
prompting a fresh round of profit-taking.
"It's a good time to take profits. Slower demand in the
U.S. starts to hurt," said Robert Nunan, a risk manager at
Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.
The EIA said weekly gasoline demand fell to 9.347 million
bpd from the previous week's 9.357 million bpd. Lower fuel
imports into China, which might signal a demand growth slowdown
in the world's second-largest energy consumer, also weighed on
prices.
China's net imports of oil products excluding liquefied
petroleum gas decreased 24.5 percent in June from May,
according to Reuters calculations based on customs data
released on Thursday. []
But the net import level increased 25.3 percent over the
same month last year.
News that Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> had lifted a force
majeure on oil exports from its Bonga offshore field in Nigeria
helped eased supply worries. []
But new concerns surfaced when the main militant group in
Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta said on Thursday it will
end a ceasefire from midnight (2300 GMT) on Saturday in protest
against a British offer to help tackle lawlessness in the area.
[]
Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the
U.S. and Israel it was ready to retaliate for any attack over
its disputed nuclear work. []
But a senior State Department official said that the U.S.
has not exhausted all diplomatic options against Tehran, which
helped calm markets.
(Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
