* U.S. crude, gasoline stocks down; imports up - API
* Fed steps in to shore up U.S. economic recovery
* Coming up: U.S. EIA crude, dist, gasoline stocks; 1430
GMT
* For a technical view, click: []
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Oil hovered around $80 on
Wednesday after data showing a rise in U.S. crude imports was
offset by steps taken by the Federal Reserve to shore up the
economic recovery.
The higher U.S. crude imports coupled with lower refinery
operating rates, in data released after the close on Tuesday,
raised concerns of a stock build in the world's largest energy
consumer.
U.S. crude had pared losses late on Tuesday after Fed said
it would would use cash from maturing mortgage bonds it holds
to buy more government debt, knocking the dollar and boosting
equities.
"I think it's positive on the U.S. economy," said Tony
Nunan, a risk manager with Mitsubishi Corp, adding that the
government may have to continue spending to get the economic
recovery back on track.
"Unemployment numbers in the last two months were not so
good. There is a lot of feeling that the economic recovery in
the U.S. has stalled."
U.S. crude for September <CLc1> delivery fell 1 cent to
$80.24 a barrel at 0244 GMT after falling $1.23 to settle at
$80.25 a barrel overnight.
Front-month ICE Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 2 cents to $79.58
a barrel.
U.S. CRUDE IMPORTS UP
Crude imports to the U.S. were up 1.6 million barrels per
day to 10.96 million barrels per day, according to weekly data
from the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade group
released on Tuesday.
However, the data also showed U.S. crude inventories
dropping by 2.2 million barrels in the week to Aug. 6, versus
analysts expectations for a 1.9 million barrel draw.
"We have to get through this grey zone. We need to have
inventories drawn down more," Nunan said.
U.S. refinery utilization fell 2.5 percentage points to
84.2 percent. Gasoline stocks fell 1.5 million barrels,
compared with forecasts for a 200,000 barrel rise. []
Even though U.S. oil demand is expected to end a
four-year-old decline this year by rising 140,000 barrels per
day (bpd), or 0.7 percent, to 18.910 million bpd, analysts are
sceptical.
"We are not sure that these estimates will hold through the
next few months, though, given recent declines in the weekly
figures and a series of disappointing numbers on the economy,"
Peter Beutel, president of trading advisory Cameron Hanover
said in a note.
"We expect demand in the U.S. to end the year very near
unchanged against 2009."
China's refinery output eased in July from a record in
June, although was still up 6.7 percent over a year earlier.
[]
Economic growth in the world's second-largest energy
consumer is slowing slightly, although still remains robust as
the government steers credit growth back to normal.
[]
(Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Michael Urquhart)
