* Oil slides 5 pct on US GDP after Thursday 6 pct rise
* CFTC investigating United States Oil Fund LP trade
(Updates prices)
By Chris Baldwin
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Oil fell by more than $2 on
Friday, halting its three-day bull run, but otherwise remaining
on course to end the month up 5 percent from January, its first
such gain since June.
Oil fell after official data showed the U.S. economy
contracted more sharply in the fourth quarter than initially
expected, falling at an annual rate of 6.2 percent from October
to December, the deepest slide since December 1982.
[]
"The GDP numbers weren't very good, and the dollar is
tightening up against the euro and the pound. It started out
good this morning, but now it's all just a bit of a retrace from
yesterday," said Rob Montefusco at Sucden Financial.
U.S. crude for April delivery <CLc1> was down $1.70 to
$43.52 a barrel by 1537 GMT after touching a session low of
$42.55 London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell $1.01 to $45.50.
OPEC output cuts and a bounce in U.S. demand for gasoline
this week pushed oil prices up, and analysts at JP Morgan said
tight supply meant "the crude market is finally in balance."
Analyst Oliver Jakob at Petromatrix said Friday's backslide
was also attributable to news late Thursday the U.S. Commodity
Futures Trading Commission was investigating a crude oil trade
from earlier this month by the United States Oil Fund LP on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. []
"The CFTC's investigation of US Oil Fund could put pressure
on WTI (U.S. crude) because the positions it had in the market
were very large. It was a late development yesterday that
figured after the market was already closed," Jakob said.
The giant United States Oil Fund LP <USO.P> exchange-traded
fund said on Friday it was not aware of any investigation by the
CFTC.[]
OPEC COMPLIANCE
A steep 3.4 million barrel drawdown in U.S. gasoline stocks
announced earlier in the week sparked the rally that has lifted
crude prices 13 percent in this week alone. NYMEX gasoline
futures registered their highest settlement since November.
"With the impact of OPEC production cuts clearly being felt
in the markets, we anticipate continued bullishness in the
coming week with refinery runs expected to rise sharply,
resulting in a crude draw," JP Morgan analysts wrote in their
Global Energy Strategy note.
OPEC has been implementing a 5 percent reduction in its
share of global production since September, totalling 4.2
million barrels per day, to support falling oil prices.
Oil touched a record high of $147.27 in July, and in the
following months fell more than $100 to $32.49 in December as
the global economy shuddered into a rapid and deep recession.
Signs of recovery have been lacking, with leading
industrialised and developing countries releasing economic data
regularly that show slumping consumer demand, rising
unemployment and frozen credit liquidity.
Geneva-based consultant Petrologistics, which tracks OPEC
supply, earlier this week said the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries is on schedule to deliver 89 percent
compliance with the production cuts by the end of February.
OPEC members continue to mull the possibility of another
output cut at its meeting in March, with the United Arab
Emirates cutting allocations for Asian refiners in April.
Venezuela said it wanted OPEC to agree on a new oil output
cut, but relatively small member Ecuador said oil prices were
stabilising now, brushing off possibility it might urge a cut.
(Additional reporting by Angela Moon in Seoul; editing by
Keiron Henderson)
