* Enbridge has regulatory approval for Friday pipe restart
* Technicals show bear trend towards $72.63 []
* Coming Up: Univ. of Michigan consumer sentiment; 1355
GMT
(Updates with price rebound, Asian stock markets)
By Alejandro Barbajosa
SINGAPORE, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Oil rebounded on Friday,
spurred by rising Asian equities, but was still headed for its
biggest weekly drop in a month as Enbridge prepared to resume
flows through its largest Canada-U.S. pipeline within hours.
U.S. crude for October <CLc1> rose 30 cents to $74.87 a
barrel by 0608 GMT, but still down 2.1 percent this week. It
touched $74.11 on Thursday, its lowest price since Sept. 9,
when a leak forced Enbridge to halt flows through its
670,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Line 6A that supplies crude to
refiners in the U.S. Midwest.
Prices reached a one-month high of $78.04 earlier this week
on expectations of an extended outage that would drain high
inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage and pricing hub
for U.S. crude benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI),
reducing European marker Brent's current premium to WTI.
"WTI (is) pressured by the ongoing Cushing bottleneck, and
Brent supported by seasonal maintenance to North Sea
operations, regional supply issues, and stronger global
demand," said JP Morgan oil analysts headed by Lawrence Eagles.
Enbridge Inc <ENB.TO> has completed repairs and received
regulatory approval to restart the duct on Friday, which
carries up to a third of Canada's U.S.-bound crude shipments,
restoring nearly 5 percent of imports for the world's largest
oil consuming nation. []
Line 6A is the main artery of Enbridge's Lakehead Pipeline
System, the backbone of U.S. oil imports from top supplier
Canada. The line serves refineries with a combined capacity of
more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in the Chicago area
and connects with a spur that reaches the key Cushing hub.
For a map: http://link.reuters.com/mes92p
CUSHING STOCKS RISE
Crude stored at the Cushing hub rose by 93,496 barrels to
37.66 million barrels in the week to Sept. 14, according to a
report from industry data provider Genscape on Thursday.
[]
Genscape estimated that Cushing crude tanks were filled to
72 percent of shell capacity by Tuesday, unchanged from last
week.
"We not only believe that Cushing stocks will reach
capacity by the end of October, but that new supply additions
have the potential to keep the forward curve under pressure,
possibly all the way through to the spring 2011 maintenance
program," JP Morgan said.
November WTI gained 50 cents to $76.24, trading about $1.35
above the front month. And ICE Brent for November <LCOc1> rose
49 cents to $78.97, commanding a premium of almost $2.75 to
November WTI. October Brent expired on Wednesday.
"At this juncture we are cautious on some of the seasonal
effects which have been driving Brent," JP Morgan said.
Crude oil output from nine of the main North Sea streams
will increase by 9.9 percent in October, according to data
compiled by Reuters on Thursday from trading sources. Output in
October is set to average 2.017 million bpd, up from 1.836
million bpd planned in September. []
Japanese stocks climbed to a six-month high on Friday
following Tokyo's aggressive yen selling on Wednesday. U.S.
stocks were mildly positive a day earlier, as a mood of
uncertainty about the strength of the global recovery prevailed
across markets. []
New U.S. claims for jobless benefits hit a two-month low
last week, hinting at some stability in the labor market, while
the contraction in factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region
slowed in September. []
The reports on Thursday further reduced the odds of a
double-dip recession and suggested the Federal Reserve may not
need to launch a fresh round of asset purchases to aid the
economic recovery.
Hurricane Karl formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico on
Thursday and gained strength as it headed across Mexico's
offshore oil patch. []
Mexican oil monopoly Pemex said on Thursday it had halted
production at 14 wells in the Gulf of Mexico and evacuated
personnel as Hurricane Karl moved through a key offshore
production area. []
Two of Mexico's main oil exporting ports also closed as
Karl passed through the region. []
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
