* Enbridge close to completing Canada-U.S. duct repairs
* Yen falls vs dollar, euro due to intervention
* Coming Up: U.S. EIA weekly oil inventories; 1430 GMT
(Updates prices)
By Ikuko Kurahone
LONDON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Oil fell for a second day on
Wednesday as pipeline operator Enbridge prepared to reopen the
biggest Canada-U.S. crude line, which analysts said could limit
the drainage of record-high inventories.
The yen slipped against the U.S. dollar and the euro as
Japan's central bank intervened to sell its currency for the
first time in six years. But analysts said immediate impact on
oil prices would be limited. []
By 1033 GMT, U.S. crude for October <CLc1> fell $1.10 to
$75.70 a barrel, dropping more steeply than the 71 cent dip in
the price of European marker Brent <LCOc1> to $78.45.
Canada's Enbridge <ENB.TO>, which has been hit by three
pipeline outages since July, said on Tuesday it was near to
completing repairs on its U.S.-bound 6A oil pipeline. Enbridge
said it might also be able to restart the line without
submitting to a lengthy approval process from U.S. regulators.
A report signalled the restart may come by the end of the
week. [] []
"The market driver today is the expectation that Enbrige
(pipeline) will come back online sooner rather than later,"
Olivier Jakob, consultant with Petromatrix, said.
Discounts on U.S. crude to Brent crude steepened to about
$2.75 a barrel after narrowing to less than $1.40 earlier this
week. They were wider than $3.50 a week ago, before the line
halted flows. <CL-LCO1=R>
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Graphic on Brent/U.S. crude spread:
http://link.reuters.com/vew63p
For yen strength:
http://r.reuters.com/puw56n
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
The U.S. dollar extended its gains against the yen <JPY=>
after an official at Japan's Ministry of Finance said
intervention was not over. It climbed more than 2 percent on the
day above 85 yen and nearly two yen above a 15-year low.
[]
Dollar versus euro, the currency pairing most oil traders
have been focusing on, was mostly stable. <EUR=>
"A weaker yen means stronger dollar, which should mean lower
oil prices. However, the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen have
generally moved together as they are both considered as safe
havens," Tony Nunan with Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo said.
"So most people were looking at the U.S. dollar versus the
euro, or a basket. Japanese oil demand growth is so bad and I am
not too sure how much effect the yen will have."
Later in the day, oil market focus will shift to the U.S.
official weekly oil data for the week to Sept. 10 from the
Energy Information Administration at 1430 GMT.
Analysts in a Reuters poll forecast a 2.2 million barrel
drop in U.S. crude oil inventories due mainly to the Enbridge
shutdown. []
But separate data from industry group American Petroleum
Institute (API) showed late on Tuesday that inventories rose by
3.3 million barrels last week. []
(Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore,
Editing by Lin Noueihed)
