* Oil edges up after nearly 2 percent drop
* OPEC says "willing to go further" to balance market
* Advance U.S. Q4 GDP data seen weakest in 26 years
(Updates prices, changes dateline, previous Singapore)
By Chris Baldwin
LONDON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Oil firmed modestly on Friday,
after a nearly 2 percent fall the previous day, after OPEC said
it would cut output further at its March meeting if needed to
balance the market.
By 1115 GMT, U.S. crude was up 43 cents a barrel at $41.87,
while London Brent crude gained $1.00 to $46.40.
The producer cartel's secretary general told Reuters it was
willing to go further to stem oil's $100-a-barrel collapse since
July last year.
"If the market is unbalanced, yes we will take measures to
balance the market," the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries' Abdullah al-Badri said at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland on Friday. []
Analysts said investors would focus on advance U.S.
fourth-quarter gross domestic product data on Friday at 1330
GMT, expected to show Q4 GDP down 5.40 percent, its weakest in
26 years.[]
"If they surprise to downside, then the scope for any future
price gain is going to be capped, and prices may actually even
go lower," said Harry Tchilinguirian, senior oil analyst at BNP
Paribas in London.
Asia's outlook was equally bleak. Data showed Japan's
unemployment at a near three-year high and industrial output in
the world's third-biggest oil consumer plunging a record 10
percent last month [].
SHRINKING DEMAND
Oil has fallen nearly 11 percent over the past week but is
only down 6.8 percent from December, its smallest monthly
percentage fall since prices began tumbling off a record high
near $150 in June.
On Thursday oil fell 1.7 percent on data showing the U.S.
jobless rate rose to a record peak in January, single-family
home sales fell in December to their lowest ever and new orders
for durable goods tumbled for a fifth straight month.
Shrinking demand for fuel has also contributed to the
biggest four-month build-up in U.S. crude stockpiles since 1990.
"You have a tug of war between refiners that are cutting
throughputs and OPEC cutting its supply," Tchilinguirian said.
But traders said some support came from a possible strike by
30,000 U.S. refinery workers who threatened on Thursday to
shutter more than half of the nation's oil refining capacity,
though a top union negotiator expressed optimism a deal could be
reached before Sunday's deadline [].
In Britain, energy workers staged unofficial walkouts on
Friday when anger over the use of foreign workers at an oil
refinery spread to other sites across the country.
Contractors at Total's <TOTF.PA> Lindsey refinery in eastern
England began a protest on Wednesday. The dispute spread on
Friday, and hundreds walked out at the Grangemouth oil refinery
in Scotland run by Ineos Group [].
Total and Ineos have both said production has not been
affected.
(Additional reporting by Farah Masters; editing by Sue Thomas)
