* Milder U.S. winter sends oil down from 15-month peak
* U.S. distillate stocks to fall for 5th week, crude up
* Optimism over world demand recovery grows
(Updates prices, adds Kuwait minister, Saudi Aramco CEO)
By Alejandro Barbajosa
SINGAPORE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Oil pared losses to stay
above $82 a barrel on Tuesday, as confidence over rising global
demand offset forecasts for milder weather in the U.S.
Northeast.
Officials from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, as well as the U.S.
Energy Information Administration (EIA), said that world oil
demand would continue to rise this year.
Icy weather in the United States this winter had so far
drawn down U.S. inventories of distillates, including heating
oil. Stocks were forecast to have declined by 1.7 million
barrels last week, a Reuters poll showed, their fifth-straight
weekly drop.
U.S. crude for February delivery <CLc1> fell 34 cents to
$82.18 a barrel at 0814 GMT, after hitting $83.95 on Monday,
the highest intraday level since Oct. 2008.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> shed 32 cents to $80.65 a
barrel.
"The market got a little bit ahead of itself after it broke
$82 a barrel quite easily," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager
with Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.
"With the February contract going off the board next week,
we will soon be looking ahead to the end of the winter.
Refineries should be going back into maintenance soon in
preparation for the gasoline season."
U.S. Northeast temperatures six to 10 days from now will be
near to above normal, said DTN Meteorlogix. And the country's
heating oil demand was forecast be normal this week, after
surging to 12 percent above seasonal levels last week, the
National Weather Service said. []
Refiners are also limiting their intake of crude, aiming to
reduce a glut in oil products that has prevailed for more than
a year despite the recent freeze.
The Reuters poll found that crude oil inventories rose 1.0
million barrels for their second consecutive week of gains.
U.S. gasoline supplies also probably climbed 900,000 barrels,
ahead of data from industry group American Petroleum Institute
(API) at 2130 GMT on Tuesday.
Data from the U.S. government's EIA will be released on
Wednesday.
RISING DEMAND
Crude futures pared losses after Kuwait's oil minister
said there would be no need for OPEC to change supply policy at
its meeting in March. []
The oil price is "fantastic" and oil demand is rising,
Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters at Kuwait's
parliament. "Next meeting will be the same... no change of
course," he said.
Oil demand is rising slowly, helping to stabilise the oil
market, Saudi Aramco's chief executive Khalid al-Falih told the
al-Watan newspaper. "Prices have started to recover and demand
for oil is rising gradually," Watan reported Falih as saying.
[]
U.S. and global oil demand will increase in 2010 and 2011,
but the growth rate in petroleum consumption will not be as
strong as in years past, according to advance details provided
to Reuters on a U.S. government monthly energy supply and
demand forecast. []
The EIA expects the U.S. economy to grow about 2 percent
this year and nearly 2.7 percent next year, leading to higher
demand for oil.
Oil futures had also slid with Asian stock markets on
concerns that a monetary policy tightening in China would curb
demand for energy as economic stimulus measures are withdrawn.
China's central bank on Tuesday signalled in its open
market operations that it was tightening short-term liquidity
at a faster-than-expected pace in response to rising concerns
about the economy overheating. []
(Editing by Ramthan Hussain)
