* Monetary policy focus; Fed meeting, China tightening
worry
* OPEC meeting likely to leave output policy unchanged
* Coming Up: Fed rate announcement; 1815 GMT
SINGAPORE, March 16 (Reuters) - Oil steadied below $80 a
barrel on Tuesday after a fall of nearly 2 percent in the
previous session, its biggest one-day fall in more than two
weeks, as the market awaits the outcome of OPEC and central
bank meetings.
With the dollar also flat against the euro, after gains the
previous day on worries about debt problems in Greece, there
was little reason for oil prices to move.
U.S. crude futures for April <CLc1> fell 10 cents to $79.70
a barrel by 0156 GMT, while London April Brent <LCOc1> dropped
19 cents to $77.70.
The slide in oil prices on Monday, which took front-month
crude below $80 for the first time since March 4, was triggered
by dollar gains, and also fears that a 16-month high in
consumer inflation in China might lead the country's central
bank to raise bank reserve requirements as early as this week.
China, the world's second biggest oil consumer, has already
tightened reserve requirements twice this year, with each move
hitting commodity markets worried about slower demand from a
major engine of demand growth for raw materials.
"I think China's economy will undergo a phase of
consolidation this year and we probably won't see the boom it
went through in 2009," said Benson Wang, a crude oil trader at
Commodity Broking Services in Sydney.
"Oil is seeing some range-trading at the moment and it will
be hard for it to break out of the top end of this range."
The world's top oil consumer, the United States, will also
get a steer on monetary policy after the Federal Reserve
meeting later on Tuesday.
Given lingering labour market weakness and doubts on the
strength of the economic recovery, most market participants
expect no change in rates and a continued commitment to keep
borrowing costs low. []
The outcome of an OPEC meeting that starts on Wednesday
also seems a done deal, with Saudi Arabia's oil minister saying
on Monday that the producers' group might not need to adjust
output policy this year if markets remain stable.
[]
"The market is in balance, the price is great, inventories
are coming down, so why should we do anything?" he said ahead
of the meeting.
U.S. domestic crude stockpiles likely rose by 900,000
barrels last week, marking the seventh straight build, a
Reuters poll ahead of weekly industry and government inventory
reports showed on Monday.
Distillate and gasoline stocks fell, the poll showed.
[]
(Reporting by Michael Urquhart; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
