UPDATE 5-Oil falls from record as supply worries ease

                                
 (Updates throughout, changes dateline from previous LONDON)
                                
 NEW YORK, May 8 (Reuters) - Oil fell from record highs near
$124 a barrel on Thursday as signs of rising supplies from OPEC
and growing inventories in the United States helped spur profit
taking.
                                
 U.S. crude <CLc1> traded down 80 cents at $122.73 a barrel
by 1:25 p.m. EDT (1725 GMT), off a record of $123.93 hit late
on Wednesday. London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 31 cents to
$122.01 a barrel.
                                
 The slide came after U.S. government data released
Wednesday showed a sharp build in U.S. crude stocks last week
and a surprise rise in gasoline inventories, easing supply
worries ahead of the summer driving season.
                                
 News top oil exporter Saudi Arabia booked eight
supertankers to carry 16 million barrels of crude to the United
States in May and early June, the highest number of cargoes so
far this year, also weighed on prices. [ID:nL08786951

                                
 Overall OPEC exports, excluding Angola and Ecuador, are
expected to rise 220,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the four
weeks to May 24, forecast British consultancy Oil Movements.
[nENG000416]
                                
 "I think it's the Saudi story that has taken the wind out
of the sails for the time being," said Nauman Barakat, senior
vice president at Macquarie Futures USA.
                                
 Oil prices have surged five-fold since 2002, as supply
struggles to match growing demand in emerging economies, and
Goldman Sachs earlier this week forecast prices could rocket to
$200 in the next two years.
                                
 A surge in speculative buying from investors hedging
against inflation and the falling dollar has also lifted prices
since September. Oil has jumped about $13 since late last week
alone.
                                
 "This is a normal pullback after a very steep run from the
last four sessions. Eventually, this market has to take a
breather, and this morning we're letting some air out of the
balloon," said Stephen Schork, president of The Schork Report.
                                
 High fuel costs have battered the troubled U.S. economy,
and U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to again ask OPEC
to increase output when he travels to Saudi Arabia next week.
[ID:nL08639115]
                                
 OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri on Thursday
insisted oil markets are well supplied but added the cartel
could pump more to keep up with demand. [nL08786046]
                                
"There is clearly no shortage of oil in the market," he said
in a statement.
                                
 Further support for prices has come from tight distillate
markets, especially in Europe, after a recent strike at the
UK's Grangemouth refinery and production problems at the Porvoo
refinery diesel unit in Finland.
                                
 Tight power supplies in China, South Africa, Latin America
and parts of the Middle East have also set off a worldwide boom
in demand for diesel for use in electric generators.
[ID:nN25293667]
 (Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Robert Gibbons, and Gene Ramos
in New York, Margaret Orgill in London and James Topham in
Tokyo; Editing by Christian Wiessner)