* U.S. and Chinese economic data helps stall upward momentum
* 900,000 bpd at risk if drilling delayed post BP spill -IEA
* For a technical view, click: [
]* Coming Up: U.S. ECRI weekly index; 1430 GMT
(Updates prices)
By Christopher Johnson
LONDON, June 18 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Friday on signs economic growth in the world's top two oil consumers may not be as rapid as expected.
A Chinese official said on Friday growth was expected to slow in the second half of this year and that double-digit growth for the full year seemed unlikely. [
]The warning, which prompted a sell-off in Chinese equities, followed U.S. data on Thursday showing jobless claims increased unexpectedly last week as the manufacturing, construction and education sectors shed workers. [
]Factory activity growth braked to its slowest pace in 10 months in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region in June, raising concerns that an anaemic U.S. economic recovery was faltering.
Benchmark U.S. crude futures for July <CLc1> were down 50 cents per barrel at $76.29 by 1321 GMT, after hitting a low of $75.56. The fall pushed front-month U.S. crude futures below their 200-day moving average.
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For a graphic of the U.S. crude continuation chart, showing the 200-day moving average, click:
http://link.reuters.com/puq72m
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The front-month North Sea Brent futures <LCOc1> contract, now August, dropped $1.43 per barrel to a low of $77.25 before recovering to trade around $77.75 by 1321.
July U.S. light crude futures expire on June 22.
DEEPWATER
Oil prices are up by around 2 percent this month but that overall gain masks a period of relatively volatile prices.
U.S. crude has risen almost 19 percent since hitting an intra-day low of almost $64 on May 20. Oil is still more than 12 percent below a 19-month high above $87 hit on May 3.
"Oil is consolidating a little after some very substantial gains," said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank.
Overall oil product demand in the United States advanced by 1.9 percent in the past four weeks from a year earlier, the Energy Information Administration said this week. Distillate use jumped almost 14 percent in the same period.
Many analysts see potential upside to oil demand this year.
Christophe Barret, oil analyst at Credit Agricole in London, said a front-month price for WTI of between $75 and $80 "looks reasonable". He said he expected prices to rise in the third quarter as global economic demand picked up.
Some analysts argue oil fundamentals could tighten in future and say the Gulf of Mexico spill may curb potential supply.
Washington has banned deepwater drilling for six months and may also introduce legislation to curb fuel consumption as a response to the environmental disaster caused by the spill.
The head of the International Energy Agency, Nobuo Tanaka, told Reuters on Friday that 800,000 to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) of global offshore oil output could be cut by 2015 if there were to be an extended global moratorium on new drilling similar to that seen in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. [
]Deutsche Bank analyst Adam Sieminski said the combination of the moratorium, tightened drilling regulations and longer permitting time-frames could defer deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil production by nearly 50,000 bpd in 2010 and 200,000 bpd in 2011.
"In addition we believe it also raises the long-run equilibrium price of oil by as much as $5 per barrel," Sieminski wrote in a weekly note to commodity clients on Friday.
Prices of long-dated WTI, including contracts for delivery in December 2018, the farthest out, have remained fairly steady around $95 since BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20.
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For a graphic of the U.S. crude curve before and after the spill:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/10/CMD_CRDFWD0610.gif
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; editing by William Hardy)