* Oil edges up ahead of U.S. oil inventory data
* U.S. crude, gasoline stocks expected to fall
* Dollar movement to add to further direction
(Updates prices, adds comment)
By Alastair Sharp
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Oil edged higher on Wednesday
ahead of U.S. data that was expected to show a fall in crude and
gasoline inventories.
Any gains were muted as the U.S. dollar rose to a six-month
high, subduing the appetite to buy into dollar-denominated
commodities.
U.S. crude <CLc1> rose 43 cents to $113.44 a barrel by 1200
GMT. On Tuesday, it settled $1.44 lower, after falling to
$112.31, the lowest level since early May. London Brent crude
<LCOc1> ticked up by 45 cents to $111.60.
"We've seen such big moves over the last week or so, the
market is now consolidating," said Helen Henton, head of
commodities research at Standard Chartered.
Crude has fallen 22 percent, or more than $30, since hitting
an all-time high of $147.27 a barrel on July 11.
"We see (crude) oscillating in a $110-$130 band, and any
further movement depends on the dollar from here," Henton said.
Weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA) was expected to show crude stocks had fallen by 200,000
barrels after Tropical Storm Edouard disrupted imports,
according to a Reuters poll of analysts. []
Gasoline inventories were also expected to shrink by 2.1
million barrels and New York RBOB gasoline futures <RBc1> led
the modest gains on the oil market.
Distillates stocks, which include heating oil and diesel,
were forecast to rise by 1.9 million barrels.
Increasing signs of weakening oil demand as economies slow
in leading consumer markets, however, continued to weigh.
Oil demand in the world's top consumer the United States
fell by an average 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) year-on-year
during the first half, marking the sharpest fall in 26 years,
the EIA said on Tuesday. []
A relatively strong dollar, which has risen sharply since
the start of this month as investors see signs of the economic
slowdown in the United States spreading to Europe <.DXY> has
also depressed oil and other commodities.
On the supply side, hostilities between Russia and Georgia,
a key alternative supply route for oil and gas from the Caspian
to Europe, has failed to shake the market.
BP PLC <BP.L> closed an oil pipeline and a natural gas
pipeline running from its Caspian Sea fields through Georgia but
said neither pipeline had been damaged by the recent fighting.
A third BP pipeline that runs through Georgia, the
Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline pumping Azeri crude, was shut
last week following an explosion in Turkey.
(Additional reporting by Ikuko Kao in London and Chua Baizhen
in Singapore; editing by James Jukwey)
