UPDATE 15-Oil ends flat, trade thin, Japan, Mideast eyed

                                
 * Saudi troops enter Bahrain to support Sunni government
                                
 * Japan fuel needs after quake support distillate futures
                                
 * Coming up: API oil data at 4:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday
 (Recasts and updates throughout)
                                
 NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices ended little
changed on Monday on thin volatile trade as dealers eyed
increased Japanese fuel imports after a devastating earthquake
and wider Middle East unrest.
                                
 Oil drew some support from news that Saudi Arabia sent
troops into Bahrain to help respond to protests but trade was
overall muted by the myriad uncertainties facing the market.
Trading volume was the lowest since the first day of the year.
                                
 Brent crude futures for April delivery <LCOc1> fell 17
cents to settle at $113.67 a barrel, bouncing after sliding to
$111.16, lowest since Feb. 25.
                                
 U.S. crude futures for April delivery <CLc1> rose 3 cents
to settle at $101.19 a barrel, recovering from $98.47, the
lowest intraday price since March 1.
                                
 Total U.S. crude trading volume was 512,688, the lowest
volume since the first trading day of the year, according to
preliminary Reuters data.
                                
 Traders reexamined the likely fallout from the earthquake
and tsunami that struck Japan, looking beyond the short-term
reduction in economic activity that originally knocked oil
prices lower toward a pick-up in fuel imports .
                                
 Heating oil <HOc1> rose 1 percent "largely on expectations
that Japan will be requiring a substantial amount of distillate
or fuel oil to replace lost refinery production and to provide
feedstock for electricity generation," Jim Ritterbusch,
president at Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note.
                                
 A range of analysts said total crude and oil product
imports could rise by 200,000 bpd or more after the closure of
a fifth of Japan's nuclear power plants and nearly a third of
its refining capacity. For a Factbox see [ID:nN14180562]
                                
 U.S. Gulf Coast jet fuel and ultra-low sulfur diesel
differentials to the benchmark heating oil futures contract
rose more than a penny per gallon on the expected boost of
exports to Japan. [ID:nN14154284]
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Factbox on Japan quake tears through commodity, energy
  sectors:                                   [ID:nL3E7EB1UN]
  SPECIAL REPORT-Can Japan find "New Deal?" [ID:nL3E7ED0FC]
  Quake to hit Japan economy, lift debt     [ID:nN12187648]
  Nuclear incident scale:       http://r.reuters.com/cag58r
  Map of reactors:              http://r.reuters.com/dyf58r
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
                                
 MIDDLE EAST UNREST
                                
 About 1,000 Saudi soldiers entered Bahrain, according to a
Saudi official source. Opponents of the Sunni ruling family in
Bahrain called the move a declaration of war. [ID:nLDE72D0KH]
                                
 The United States does not consider the Saudi entry into
Bahrain an invasion, the White House said. [ID:nN14166103]
                                
 "Saudi troops in Bahrain and fighting in Yemen and Libya
bounced crude off their lows," said Phil Flynn, analyst at
PFGBest Research in Chicago.
                                
 Scattered clashes broke out across Saudi neighbor Yemen, as
military forces were deployed to check nationwide protests
demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
[ID:nLDE72D1IR]
                                
 Muammar Gaddafi's troops made advances in their
counter-offensive against rebel fighters and were outpacing
diplomatic efforts to impose a no-fly zone. [ID:nLDE72D26K]
                                
 Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) has called on
employees to return to work is hopeful oil production can soon
increase, the head of NOC told Reuters. [ID:nLDE72D16W]
                                
 More than half of Libya's 1.6 million barrels per day oil
output is believed to have been shut in because of the Libyan
uprising.
                                
 JAPAN'S NUCLEAR WOES
                                
 Wall Street fell on Monday as traders focused on the
implications a possible meltdown at a stricken nuclear plant
after a hydrogen explosion at one reactor and exposure of fuel
rods at another. All three units are likely to be mothballed
after flooding them with seawater. [ID:nLDE72D2FT]
                                
 Japan called on the United States for more equipment to
cool down reactors damaged and U.S. officials said the
government was ramping up assistance to help Japan avert a
major nuclear meltdown, as Washington wrestled with the risks
of radiation exposure to aid workers.
 (Additional reporting by Robert Gibbons and Gene Ramos in New
York, Ikuko Kurahone in London and Alejandro Barbajosa in
Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Sofina Mirza-Reid)