NYMEX-Crude gains as U.S. stockpiles drop

                                
 SINGAPORE, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Oil rose on Wednesday after
an industry report showed crude and winter fuel stockpiles
declined last week in top-consumer the United States, reducing
a surplus that has weighed on market sentiment for months.
                                
 FUNDAMENTALS
                                
 * U.S. crude for November <CLc1> rose 29 cents to $76.47 a
barrel at 0102 GMT, while ICE Brent for the same month <LCOc1>
climbed 44 cents to $79.15.
                                
 * U.S. inventories of distillates, a fuel category that
includes heating oil and diesel, unexpectedly dropped by 2.8
million barrels in the week to Sept. 24, pulling stockpiles 3.5
million barrels below year-ago levels, the American Petroleum
Institute (API) reported late on Tuesday. [ID:nN28274688]
                                
 * Crude stocks fell by 2.4 million barrels, the API said,
eight times as much as the 300,000-barrel decline forecast in a
Reuters survey of analysts. Still, they remained 22 million
barrels higher than in the same week a year ago.
                                
 * Total U.S. petroleum inventories, including crude and
products, rose to 1.144 billion barrels in the week to Sept.
17, a record when measured on a weekly basis, a series of data
that the Energy Information Administration started compiling in
1990.
                                
 * U.S. crude imports are still recovering from the shutdown
of two major Enbridge <ENB.TO> pipelines that ship Canadian
crude to refiners in the Midwest. Line 6A was shut from Sept.
9-17. Line 6B, which was closed in July, resumed operations on
Sept 27.
                                
 * Gasoline inventories rose 3 million barrels last week,
according to the API, six times as much as expected. [EIA/S]
                                
 * Government statistics on inventories and demand from the
EIA will follow on Wednesday at 1430 GMT.
                                
 * Qatar Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said on Tuesday he
does not expect OPEC to make any changes in its production
output quotas when the group meets in October. [ID:nTOE68R06Y]
                                
 * OPEC crude oil supply has fallen so far this month to the
lowest level since November 2009 due to reduced output from
Angola and smaller declines in the United Arab Emirates and
Iran, a Reuters survey showed on Tuesday. [ID:nLDE68R1VK]
                                
 * But oil prices on Tuesday slipped after U.S. consumer
confidence fell to its lowest level in seven months in
September, underscoring lingering worries about the strength of
the economic recovery. [ID:nN28262737]
                                
 * But in a sign of stabilisation in the housing market,
U.S. home prices hovered above multi-year lows without the help
of the homebuyer tax credit that ended in April.
                                
 * A top Federal Reserve official said on Tuesday that he
has yet to make up his mind whether further easing in monetary
policy is needed, despite a weakening U.S. economy and some
risk of deflation. [ID:nN28169964]
                                
 MARKETS NEWS
                                
 * Japan's Nikkei average clawed 0.4 percent higher on
Wednesday, with exporters such as Canon Inc <7751.T> gaining
after Wall Street posted modest gains on Tuesday. [.T]
                                
 * The euro surged to a five-month high against the dollar
on Tuesday on expectations the Fed will print money to buy
assets. [USD/]
                                
 * A sliding dollar on Tuesday helped gold extend a
record-setting streak that has seen the shiny metal gain nearly
20 percent this year and buoyed other commodities by
discounting them for non-U.S. investors. [COM/WRAP]
                                
 DATA/EVENTS
 GMT
 2350 Japan  Tankan, big manufacturer             
<JPBCLG=ECI>
 2350 Japan  Tankan capex estimate                
<JPBCOV=ECI>
 0300 Japan  PAJ weekly oil inventory data  Sep 25  
[O/JAPAN1]
 0430 China HSBC PMI                              
<CNPMIC=ECI>
 0900 EZ     Business climate               Sep   
<EUBUSC=ECI>
 0900 EZ     Economic sentiment             Sep   
<EUECOS=ECI>
 1100 U.S.   Mortgage index                 Weekly 
<USMGM=ECI>
 1430 U.S.   EIA weekly crude stocks        Sep 24
<USOILC=ECI>
 1430 U.S.   EIA weekly dist. stocks        Sep 24
<USOILD=ECI>
 1430  U.S.  EIA weekly gasoline stocks     Sep 24
<USOILG=ECI>
 (Reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa; Editing by Ed Lane)