SINGAPORE, Sept 10 (Reuters) - U.S. crude for October
jumped to near $75 after a leak forced Enbridge to shut down
the biggest pipeline supplying Canadian oil to refineries in
the Midwest.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Front-month U.S. crude for delivery in October <CLc1>
jumped 70 cents to $74.95 a barrel at 0015 GMT, while the
November contract just added 17 cents to $75.96. Contracts
further out fell after a Thursday government report showed
total U.S. petroleum inventories climbed to a fresh all-time
high on a weekly basis.
* The spread, or the discount of the front month to the
second month, shrank to about $1.10 on the Enbridge news from
almost $1.80 a barrel earlier this week, flattening a market
structure known as contango, where prompt oil is cheaper than
future supplies. October ICE Brent <LCOc1> shed 17 cents to
$77.30.
* Enbridge Inc closed its 670,000 barrel per day Line 6A,
the largest of the company's major three, after a leak was
discovered near Romeoville, Illinois. Though the size of the
spill is not yet known, local fire officials said the line was
shut early in the afternoon and that the oil has been
contained. []
* Line 6A, which carries light, medium and heavy crudes, as
well as synthetic oil from northern Alberta's oil sands, runs
from Superior, Wisconsin, to Griffiths and supplies oil to
refineries in the Chicago region, as well as to the storage hub
at Cushing, Oklahoma.
* The incident comes just six weeks after Enbridge was
forced to shut down another smaller part of its Lakehead
system, which the U.S. government has not yet allowed to resume
operations amid heightened scrutiny of spills after BP Plc's
<BP.L> massive Gulf of Mexico spill.
* U.S. crude stocks dropped 1.85 million barrels to 359.9
million in the week to Sept. 3 as imports declined and
refineries processed more crude, the Energy Information
Administration reported on Thursday. []
* Distillate stocks fell 388,000 barrels, against analyst
expectations for a 600,000 barrel rise, while stocks of
gasoline fell 243,000 barrels compared with forecasts for a
larger draw of 900,000 barrels.
* Inventories at the key Cushing hub, the delivery point
for the New York Mercantile Exchange's benchmark West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, fell by 218,000 barrels to
35.54 million barrels.
MARKETS NEWS
* Japan's Nikkei average rose 0.4 percent on Friday after
stronger-than-expected U.S. data on jobless benefits and trade
raised hopes the tepid economic recovery would accelerate. []
DATA/EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Friday:
- 0200 China Prelim Commodity Trade Data Aug []
- 1400 U.S. Wholesale inventories Jul <USECRW=ECI>
- 1430 U.S. ECRI weekly index <USECRW=ECI
RELATED NEWS
* Storms are expected to shut in about 20 million more
barrels of U.S. crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico
before the hurricane season ends on Nov. 30, the Energy
Information Administration said Thursday. []
(Reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa; Editing by Manash Goswami)
