* Brent pulls back from early peak near $99 per barrel
* Brent premium to U.S. crude hits 2-yr high
* Jobless claims rise, Kuwaiti remarks weigh on U.S. oil
* Coming up: CFTC positions data, 3:30 p.m. EST Friday
(Recasts, updates prices and market activity, changes byline
and moves dateline from previous LONDON)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Brent crude futures seesawed
near $98 per barrel on Thursday while U.S. oil prices fell, as
tighter North Sea supplies and investor momentum also pushed
Brent's premium to a two-year peak.
Brent fell back from an intraday high of $98.95 after U.S.
jobless claims and durable goods data showed the economic
recovery was erratic, and on remarks from Kuwaiti's oil company
chief that OPEC may need to increase production as high oil
prices threaten the economy.
In London, ICE Brent crude for March <LCOc1> fell 6 cents
to $97.85 a barrel, at 12:58 p.m. EST (1758 GMT).
U.S. crude oil for March delivery <CLc1> fell 92 cents, or
1.05 percent, to $86.41 a barrel. Additional technical selling
was triggered by a brief break below a key support level just
above $86, but prices later traded back above it.
"The jobless claims data raises significant doubt about the
recent embrace of the notion of strong economic recovery. The
durable goods report did not help the bullish case either,"
said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC.
"Also, with Kuwait suggesting a possible output raise, on
the heels of the recent (Saudi Arabia's oil minister) Naimi
comments, more oil will likely be hitting the market from the
OPEC -- officially or not."
Brent was supported by news that Statoil <STL.OL> reduced
rates at its 113,000-barrel per day Troll oil and gas platform
for what it said would be under a week of work, even as two
other North Sea fields resumed production. []
Ample U.S. crude stocks, including at the Cushing,
Oklahoma, hub, delivery point for U.S. benchmark West Texas
Intermediate crude, have helped boost the premium of ICE Brent
crude to WTI <CL-LCO1=R>, pushing it to more than $12 intraday
on Thursday, its highest since January 2009.
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Graphic on the U.S. crude/Brent spread:
http://link.reuters.com/tad77r
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CUSHING STOCKS
Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma terminal rose by 862,000
barrels week-on-week due to a fall in refinery utilization and
rising imports, according to Wednesday's weekly report from the
Energy Information Administration. []
Stocks up to Jan. 25 dipped by nearly 500,000 barrels,
according to mid-week data from Genscape. []
Contributing to the U.S. price slip was mixed economic
data. While U.S. pending home sales rose in December, initial
jobless claims in the United States rose last week and the
four-week average also rose and durable goods orders fell in
December. []
Farouk al-Zanki, Kuwait Petroleum Corp's chief, told
Reuters on Thursday that he is concerned that current high oil
prices may contribute to the start of another global downturn
as they did nearly three years ago. []
"If more supply would bring the price down -- then why
not?" said Zanki, adding that Kuwait, the world's
fourth-largest oil exporter is currently producing within its
OPEC quota.
Supporting the notion of more OPEC supply forthcoming,
seaborne oil exports by OPEC, excluding Angola and Ecuador,
will rise by 330,000 bpd in the four weeks to Feb. 12,
according to U.K. consultancy Oil Movements. []
(Additional reporting by Claire Milhench in London and Florence
Tan in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
