* Oil eases after record rally
* Market awaits details of U.S. government's rescue plan
* U.S. oil sector recovers from Hurricane Ike
(Updates prices, adds quote)
By Alex Lawler
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Oil eased on Tuesday, after a
record one-day rise in the previous session, depressed by doubts
over a U.S. plan to rescue the financial sector.
U.S. crude for November <CLc1> was 85 cents down at $108.52
a barrel by 1354 GMT, after rising nearly $7 on Monday. November
Brent crude <LCOc1> traded down $2.01 to $104.03.
The October U.S. crude contract on Monday settled 15.7
percent higher at $120.92 before its expiry -- the biggest
one-day gain on record.
The U.S. regulator of futures markets, the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission, said on Monday it was reviewing the price
jump to ensure that the trading was valid.
Monday's price surge was supported by a weak U.S. dollar
plus hopes the $700 billion U.S. bailout plan would ease the
U.S. financial crisis and support demand in the world's top
energy consumer.
But concerns that political resistance to the rescue package
could delay its implementation weighed on global markets.
[]
"It started off with a wave of optimism and now perhaps a
bit of realism has kicked in," said Christopher Bellew, a broker
at Bache Commodities.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged Congress not to
weigh down the proposed financial system bailout with unrelated
provisions that would delay its implementation. []
"You have uncertainty about the dollar and the stock market
taking hold ahead of today's testimony in Congress," said Phil
Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.
WEAK DEMAND
After hitting a record high of $147.27 a barrel in July, oil
dropped to around $91 a barrel last week on mounting evidence
that high energy costs and slowing economic growth were having
an impact on fuel demand in large consuming nations.
U.S. oil consumption is running about 4 percent below last
year, according to the latest government data.
But prices rebounded after Hurricane Ike battered U.S. oil
infrastructure earlier this month, which means that more than 75
percent of production in the Gulf of Mexico -- home to a quarter
of U.S. output -- remains closed. []
A Reuters poll of analysts ahead of weekly U.S. government
inventory data due on Wednesday forecast that crude stocks fell
by 1.3 million barrels last week due to disruptions caused by
Ike. []
Distillate stocks were forecast to have fallen by 1.4
million barrels, with gasoline stocks expected to have dropped
by 4 million barrels after Ike shut Gulf Coast refineries.
News that Saudi Arabia had cut supplies to oil companies,
reported by Reuters on Monday, as well as unrest in Nigeria and
higher-than-expected Chinese imports have also supported prices.
The BP Plc-led <BP.L> Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline
has shut down for a short period of planned maintenance, BP
said, but exports will not be affected. []
(Reporting by Fayen Wong in Perth. Alex Lawler, Matthew
Robinson and Joe Brock in London and Robert Gibbons in New York,
editing by Anthony Barker)
