* ConocoPhillips refinery work lifts gasoline, crude
* Eurozone data, US jobless claims cap oil, Wall Street
* Coming up: CFTC positions data, 3:30 p.m. EDT Friday
(Recasts, updates prices, market activity, changes byline and
moves dateline from previous LONDON)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Oil prices bounced from
morning losses in choppy trading on Thursday as gasoline
futures rallied on a refinery shut down and Wall Street
steadied from early losses.
U.S. gasoline futures led gains on news ConocoPhillips'
238,000 barrel per day Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey,
had stopped processing crude and shut down some units for a
month and a half to install a new crude unit, tightening supply
in the key New York Harbor hub. []
U.S. crude for November <CLc1> delivery rose 69 cents, or
0.92 percent, to $75.40 per barrel by 1:09 p.m. EDT (1709 GMT),
off a low of $73.58, while front-month October RBOB gasoline
<RBV0> rose 2.39 cents, or 1.26 percent to $1.9253 a gallon.
ICE Brent crude for November <LCOc1> rose 44 cents, or 0.56
percent, to $78.39 a barrel.
Oil prices fell with equity markets earlier in the day
after data showed the pace of growth in the euro zone's
services and manufacturing sectors slowed much more than
expected in September and U.S. jobless benefit claims rose to
465,000 last week, above a forecast 450,000.
[][]
A later report showed that U.S. existing home sales rose in
August, even after the expiration of a popular tax credit for
home buyers. [], but from a 13-year low level in
July.
"Crude was weighed down by the euro zone data and U.S.
jobless claims, but the products led the complex back up and
was helped by the Bayway refinery news," said Richard Ilczyszyn
senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago.
OIL INVENTORIES STILL BULGING
A weak dollar and a possible storm threat to energy
operations in the Gulf of Mexico were not enough on Wednesday
to offset government data that showed an unexpected increase in
U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles. []
The crude oil inventory increases last week came despite
the eight-day shutdown of the biggest pipeline shipping
Canadian crude to the U.S.
"(The data) is showing that the U.S. continues to build.
There is still a huge stock overhang in the U.S. and the
situation is not improving," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix
said.
"The fundamentals per se are not bullish for oil."
U.S. regulators approved a gradual restart of another
Enbridge Inc <ENB.TO> oil pipeline on Wednesday. The Line 6B
ruptured more than eight weeks ago fouling a Michigan river
system and squeezing oil supplies for U.S. and Canadian
refiners. []
On Thursday, energy industry data provider Genscape said
U.S. oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma crude oil hub
rose 198,440 barrels to 37.855 million barrels in the week to
Sept. 21. [] The Cushing hub is the delivery point
for U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil.
More supportive to oil was the U.S. National Hurricane
Center raising to 80 percent the chance that a tropical
depression could form in the Caribbean Sea over the next 48
hours. []
Computer models were mixed about the projected trajectory
of the system, though some showed it could threaten some
Mexican energy operations.
(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London and
Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by Alden Bentley)
