* IEA trims 2011 oil demand growth forecast by 50,000 bpd
* Front-month US crude strengthens relative to Brent, curve
* Enbridge leak size, shutdown duration still unclear
(Add IEA report, comment, updates prices)
By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - U.S. crude approached a
three-week high near $76 on Friday, after record U.S.
inventories were offset by the shutdown of a major pipeline, but
a leading forecaster said oil demand would remain tepid.
Global oil demand growth is expected to increase a little
this year but the growth forecast was trimmed for 2011 and fuel
consumption could be much weaker if the world economy slows, the
International Energy Agency said. []
Front-month U.S. crude for delivery in October <CLc1> rose
$1.42 to $75.67 a barrel at 0846 GMT, after touching $75.96 on
Thursday, the highest intraday price since Aug. 19.
The November contract <CLc2> added 88 cents to $76.67.
Brent crude <LCOc1> gained 16 cents to $77.63.
"What could become a game changer is the ... leak on the
Enbrige pipeline because it comes on top of another disruption
they had on another pipeline," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix
said.
The market was little moved by the IEA figures, he said,
adding they were similar to those in last month's report.
Oil received a boost after a leak forced Enbridge to shut
down the biggest pipeline supplying Canadian oil to refineries
in the Midwest and to a key storage hub in Oklahoma.
Enbridge Inc closed its 670,000 barrel per day (bpd) Line
6A, the largest of the company's major three, after a leak was
discovered near Romeoville, Illinois. The duct accounts for
between 7-8 percent of total U.S. crude imports. []
Canada is the largest oil exporter to the U.S. and
Enbridge's pipelines carry the lion's share of that crude.
Six weeks ago 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 following heightened
scrutiny because of BP Plc's <BP.L> Gulf of Mexico spill.
BRENT PREMIUM SHRINKS
A U.S. government report on Thursday showed U.S. fuel
inventories had hit a new all-time high. []
Record stockpiles at the world's largest oil-consuming
nation have this month depressed the price of U.S. benchmark
crude relative to European Brent <LCOc1>. The shutdown of the
Enbridge pipeline might help ease a glut at the Cushing,
Oklahoma, pricing point, chiefly supplied with Canadian oil.
Brent posted its biggest premium to WTI since mid-May
earlier this week at more than $3.50 a barrel, shrinking on
Friday to about $2.
The spread, or the discount of front-month WTI crude to the
second month, shrank to about $1 from almost $1.80 a barrel
earlier this week, flattening a market structure known as
contango, where prompt oil is cheaper than future supplies.
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Though the size of the Enbridge spill or the duration of the
outage are not yet known, fire officials said the line was shut
and the oil had been contained.
Storms are expected to cause losses of about 20 million more
barrels of U.S. crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico
before the Atlantic hurricane season ends on Nov. 30, the Energy
Information Administration said Thursday. []
Oil imports by China, the world's second-largest petroleum
user, rose 13 percent in August from a year earlier.
[]
World stocks measured by MSCI All-Country World Index
<.MIWD00000PUS> were off 0.06 percent. The dollar was down 0.17
against a basket of currencies. <.DXY>
(Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore;
editing by Keiron Henderson)
