* Oil up more than $1 as cold weather, OPEC cuts support
* US weekly crude stocks seen rising for fifth week
* Cyclone shuts half Australia's oil output
(Recasts, updates prices, previous SINGAPORE)
LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose more than a
dollar towards $48 a barrel on Tuesday, boosted partly by cold
weather in top energy consumer the United States, plus signs
OPEC oil supply cuts may have begun to underpin prices.
U.S. light, sweet crude for March delivery <CLc1> rose $1.40
to $47.13 a barrel by 0901 GMT.
U.S. crude has rebounded from below $33 a barrel in the past
week.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> climbed $1.19 to $48.15 a barrel.
"People are expecting OPEC to really be serious, and the
weather's been cold in the northeast U.S., and here, so we're
getting a bit of short-term demand," said Tony Nunan, risk
management executive at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.
"We may have found a short-term bottom but nobody is
confident that we're heading further up," he said.
Evidence suggests most of OPEC's members are implementing
the group's biggest ever 2.2 million barrel per day (bpd)
production cut agreed last month.
Oil has fallen more than $100 from a record peak above $147
a barrel in July last year, depressed by falls in demand as the
credit crisis has pushed the global economy towards recession.
U.S. fuel inventories, for example, are building as demand
shrinks.
U.S. crude oil stocks are expected to have risen a further
2.7 million barrels last week, the fifth straight week of gains.
The figures are due out on Wednesday.
Colder weather is expected to help draw down distillate
stocks by 800,000 barrels, according to a Reuters poll. Gasoline
stocks are likely to have risen by 1.3 million barrels. []
Temperatures in the densely populated U.S. northeast are
forecast to be below normal this week. []
Oil traders will get an early indication of Wednesday's U.S.
government data with the release at 2130 GMT on Tuesday of
inventory figures from the industry group the American Petroleum
Institute, as the API shifts to a new, earlier release schedule.
Cyclone Dominic in Australia shut in more than 200,000
barrels per day (bpd) of oil production provided a small measure
of support to prices. But output was expected to resume as soon
as Wednesday as the storm passes. []
Later on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama goes to
Capitol Hill to campaign for an $825 billion economic stimulus
package to be put to a House vote within days.
(Reporting by Jane Merriman in London and Jonathan Leff in
Singapore, Editing by Peter Blackburn)
