* U.S. Jan oil demand down 2 pct from year earlier
* China's 2010 oil demand growth to exceed 5 pct -CNPC
* Floating storage inventories drop in January -Goldman
By Alejandro Barbajosa
SINGAPORE, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Oil slid on Thursday to trade
below $77 a barrel as rising crude inventories in the U.S.
signal that the rebound in U.S. economic activity is failing to
translate into higher demand.
U.S. crude for March delivery <CLc1> fell 17 cents to
$76.81 a barrel at 0243 GMT, while London ICE Brent <LCOc1>
shed 25 cents to $75.67. Crude oil prices are now around 48
percent below a July 2008 high of more than $147.
A government report Wednesday showed U.S. crude stockpiles
rose more than expected as imports gained and refineries kept
operating at unusually low rates.
Although manufacturing has shown a strong rebound, U.S.
demand for distillate fuel, including diesel, plunged more than
9 percent in the four weeks to Jan. 29 from a year earlier,
according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), part
of the Department of Energy (DOE).
"Yesterday's DOE data was a disappointment," said Serene
Lim, an ANZ oil analyst based in Singapore.
"We saw an unexpected increase in crude inventories, which
could be explained by higher imports and lower refinery
utilization, but the underlying concern is that demand is still
very weak."
Total U.S. oil demand over the past four weeks declined 2
percent, showing no improvement from the corresponding period
in the previous week's report.
News this week that the Institute for Supply Management's
index rose to its highest since August 2004 raised expectations
for a strong recovery in U.S. manufacturing.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased by
8,000 in January, the second monthly gain since the recession
started in December 2007, according to the 20 forecasters who
have given the most accurate predictions in recent Reuters
polls. The data is due on Friday. []
Some analysts remain upbeat that industrial demand for oil
will soon recover, including Barclays Capital's Paul Horsnell,
head of commodities research.
"The evidence of a recovery in manufacturing, better
trucking indications and a slow turning of the manufacturing
goods inventory cycle all still point to an improvement in
diesel demand that will eventually percolate through to the
data," Horsnell said in an e-mailed note.
FLOATING STORAGE
An unusually cold winter across the northern hemisphere
helped drain some excess oil supplies from floating storage,
but the nearing of spring may halt that process.
"Because of the winter season ending soon, we won't see
much of a further decline of inventories in floating storage,"
Lim said.
Stocks of crude oil and petroleum products stored on tanker
ships around the world likely fell by 27 million barrels last
month, reducing a floating supply overhang that has depressed
oil and product prices, U.S. bank Goldman Sachs said Wednesday
in a note to clients. []
Goldman estimates that left a total of 98 million barrels
of crude and 80 million barrels of products in floating storage
as of end-January.
State-owned Chinese oil firm CNPC expects China's crude oil
imports to increase 9.1 percent to 212 million tonnes in 2010,
or 4.24 million barrels per day, a company report showed on
Thursday. []
China's apparent oil demand will grow more than 5 percent
to 427 million tonnes this year, or 8.54 million barrels per
day (bpd), the report said.
High winds and rough seas caused pilots to stop moving
ships into and out of the key oil port of Houston late on
Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. []
(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
