* Oil pauses above $43 after 7 pct surge
* US crude, gasoline stocks seen rising, distillates to
fall
* China GDP rose 6.8 pct in Q4, 2008 growth slowest in 7
yrs
(Adds China demand figures, U.S. driving data, updates prices)
By Eadie Chen
SINGAPORE, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Oil steadied above $43 on
Thursday, after jumping nearly 7 percent a day ago, as traders
weighed the impact of OPEC's supply cuts with more signs of
weakening demand in the world's top oil users.
U.S. crude stocks are expected to have risen by 1.4 million
barrels and gasoline by 1.9 million barrels in weekly data due
later in the day, potentially adding to the pall of dull
economic growth and sharply lower refinery operations in China.
U.S. light crude for March delivery <CLc1> shed 2 cents to
$43.53 a barrel by 0635 GMT, after jumpimg $2.71 on Wednesday
to the highest closing price since Jan. 6.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 11 cents to $44.91 a
barrel.
Prices were climbing for a fourth day, as the market's
focus shifted toward global conditions and away from the oil
storage limitations at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point
for NYMEX crude that had depressed the February contract.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) is fully enforcing its deepest-ever oil supply curbs and
this should be enough to boost prices, OPEC President and
Angolan oil minister Botelho de Vasconcelos told Reuters.
[]
But some analysts said the group's 4.2 million barrels per
day (bpd) cuts since September might not be enough to turn the
tide on a market that has plunged from a record high above $147
a barrel in July, as the global economic crisis hits
consumption.
"They have to cut 4 to 5 million barrels a day in quotas;
they have to get a good portion of that in real, wet barrels
off the market," said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist
for Deutsche Bank. []
SLOWING DEMAND
Some hopes for economic recovery were raised as U.S.
President Barack Obama summoned on his first full day in office
his economic advisers, who are working with the Democratic-led
Congress on an $825 billion fiscal stimulus package.
But closer to the consumer front, the government said U.S.
motorists drove 5.3 percent fewer miles in November than they
did a year ago, a record decline for the month, as lower pump
prices failed to offset the flagging economy. []
Further indications of the ailing state of demand came from
the world's No. 2 oil consumer, with China reporting growth of
just 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, just shy of market
expectations for 7.0 percent. For the whole of 2008, the
economy expanded by 9.0 percent, the slowest rate in seven
years.
While crude oil imports in December rose 11.6 percent,
refinery production rates fell 7.4 percent from a year earlier,
the biggest such drop in seven-and-a-half years, pushing
apparent oil demand 5.5 percent lower versus a year ago.
[] []
The International Monetary Fund is set to sharply cut
growth forecasts this month, Managing-Director Dominique
Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday. []
A Reuters poll on Wednesday showed industry analysts
expected global oil demand to contract by 430,000 bpd in 2009,
deeper than they had forecast previously, as the economic
crisis spreads to the developing world. []
(Additional reporting by Chua Baizhen; Editing by Jonathan
Leff and Ramthan Hussain)
