Oil near 1-month highs on expected U.S. stock drop

                                
 * Market shrugs off third pipeline closure
                                
 * Oil may retrace to $75.47/bbl-technicals [ID:nSGE68D00P]
                                
 * Coming Up: U.S. API weekly oil stocks; 2030 GMT
                                
 By Alejandro Barbajosa
                                
 SINGAPORE, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Oil was steady on Tuesday
near one-month highs above $77 ahead of inventory reports
expected to show crude stock draws as the shutdown of the
biggest Canada-U.S. pipeline enters a fifth day.
                                
 U.S. crude for October <CLc1> added 1 cent to $77.20 at
0307 GMT, after settling at a one-month high on Monday, having
earlier touched an intraday peak at $78.04. That was the
highest since Aug. 11, when prices last touched $80. ICE Brent
<LCOc1> gained 17 cents to $79.20.
                                
 Total U.S. crude inventories probably fell by 2.3 million
barrels last week, their second straight weekly drop, after the
shutdown of Enbridge's Line 6A cut imports, a Reuters poll
showed ahead of weekly supply reports on Tuesday and Wednesday.
[EIA/S]
                                
 "No resumption in the Enbridge pipeline could be supportive
for more days," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity derivatives
manager at Japan's Newedge brokerage. "Depending on how long
the line is down, the market will try to break through $80 this
week."
                                
Crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the pricing point for
the U.S. benchmark, have remained high for most of the summer,
despite a series of drops in the past few weeks.
                                
 And the country's total petroleum inventories climbed to a
new peak of 1,143,500,000 barrels in the week to Sept. 3, the
highest since at least 1990, when the government began issuing
weekly data.
                                
 "We can expect some decrease in stocks in some regions, but
still no fears of a shortage," Newedge's Hasegawa said. "There
is plenty of surplus."
                                
 Enbridge's Line 6A feeds right into the heart of the
Midwest's oil network. The closure is affecting refineries in
the region and storage at Cushing, where inventories fell more
than 200,000 barrels to 35.54 million in the week to Sept. 3.
                                
 On Monday, there was still no estimate of when the troubled
duct would resume shipments. [ID:nN13221176]
                                
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
 TAKE A LOOK-Enbridge crude line shut      [ID:nN10265810]   
Factbox on outage impact                  [ID:nN13190665]   
Factbox on pipelines feeding the Midwest  [ID:nN10275799]   
Factbox on refineries                     [ID:nN1037716]   
History of Enbridge's pipeline spills     [ID:nN10254087]   
Graphic on Enbridge pipeline configuration:
                                
http://link.reuters.com/qyz52p
                                
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
                                
 The Enbridge outage has the potential to reduce flows to
Cushing by about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to
J.P. Morgan oil analysts, taking into account the possibility
of pumping crude through alternative routes.
                                
 Line 6A was shipping 459,000 bpd when it leaked on
Thursday, about two-thirds of its 670,000 bpd total capacity.
                                
 A small oil spill on Monday forced Enbridge to close a
70,000-bpd pipeline in New York State, just four days after a
leak in Illinois forced the shutdown of the bigger line.
                                
 This week's inventory reports were expected to show little
change in stocks of U.S. products. Distillates, including
heating oil and diesel, rose about 300,000 barrels last week
after two weeks of drawdowns, the poll showed, while gasoline
inventories fell about 400,000 barrels.
                                
 The industry group American Petroleum Institute will issue
its report for the week to Sept. 10 on Tuesday, at 2030 GMT,
while the U.S. Energy Information Administration will follow
with government data on Wednesday at 1430 GMT.
                                
 In other markets, the yen rose to a 15-year high on Tuesday
ahead of a decisive vote in Japan, weighing on the country's
equities and leaving unclear whether a rally that has lifted
global stock markets to the highest in a month can last.
[MKTS/GLOB]
                                
 The dollar was also near a one-month low against a basket
of currencies after suffering on Monday its steepest fall
against the euro in two months on rising risk appetite from
investors.
                                
 Traders in the oil market will also pay attention to U.S.
retail sales statistics for August, due out later on Tuesday.
                                
 And in the storm front, Hurricane Igor churned westward in
the Atlantic Ocean as a dangerous Category 4 storm and could
strengthen even further on Monday, forecasters said. Igor was
strong enough to cause catastrophic damage but posed no
immediate threat to land or energy interests. [ID:nN13190212]
 (Editing by Manash Goswami)