UPDATE 3-Oil falls below $77, awaits stock data

                                
 * Oil continues slide below Monday's one-month high
                                
 * U.S. API oil stocks, 2030 GMT: fall forecast in crude
                                
 * Coming Up: U.S. retail sales at 1230 GMT
 
                                
 (Adds comment, updates prices)
                                
 By David Turner
                                
 LONDON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Oil eased further on Tuesday
below Monday's one-month high, with traders reluctant to take
strong positions ahead of eagerly awaited inventory numbers. 
                                
 U.S. crude for October <CLc1> was down 55 cents to $76.64 at
1145 GMT, below Monday's intraday peak of $78.04 -- the highest
value since August 11. Prices had surged on Monday as the
shutdown of the biggest Canada-U.S. pipeline, run by
Calgary-based pipeline giant Enbridge, continued.
[ID:nN13221176]
                                
 The shutdown entered a fifth day on Tuesday, but traders
said markets had become wary of taking strong positions ahead of
U.S. oil inventory figures expected from the American Petroleum
Institute (API) at 2030 GMT on Tuesday, and from the Energy
Information Administration on Wednesday. [EIA/R]
                                
 Total U.S. crude inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels
last week, their second weekly drop, after the shutdown of
Enbridge's Line 6A cut imports, a Reuters poll forecast ahead of
the reports. [ID:nN13228278]
                                
 However, traders said the markets had already factored in a
rundown in crude stocks, so prices would only rise if the
drawdown was large. "A substantial drawdown would certainly have
a positive effect on prices," Tony Machacek of Bache
Commodities, the brokerage, said. However, he suggested that
prices could fall in response to a drawdown of below 2 million
barrels.
                                
 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.
                                
 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.
                                
 Enbridge's Line 6A feeds from Canada 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
line would resume shipments.
                                
 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.
                                
 On Wednesday at 1430 GMT the EIA will follow the API's data.
                                
 Tropical Storm Julia strengthened over the far eastern
Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday and became the fifth hurricane of the
season, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. However, it
forecast that Julia would miss the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
[ID:nN14242340]
                                
 Traders in the oil market will also pay attention to U.S.
retail sales statistics for August, due out at 1230 GMT on
Tuesday, for a check on the economic health of the world's top
oil consumer.
                                
 OPEC said on Tuesday that it was happy with an oil price of
between $70 and $80 a barrel, at a news conference to mark its
50th anniversary. [ID:nLDE68D16E]
 (Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa; editing by Keiron
Henderson)