SINGAPORE, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Oil fell for a second day on
Wednesday as Enbridge prepared to restart the biggest
Canada-U.S. crude pipeline, raising expectations of a
short-lived shutdown that would limit the drainage of
record-high inventories.
FUNDAMENTALS
* U.S. crude for October <CLc1> fell 50 cents to $76.30 a
barrel at 0142 GMT, a steeper drop compared to the 1 cent
decline in the European marker ICE Brent <LCOc1> because of the
localised impact of the pipeline outage.
* Enbridge said Tuesday it was near to completing repairs
on the duct and might be able to restart the line without
submitting to a lengthy formal approval process from U.S.
regulators. []
* Enbridge said it was welding a stretch of new pipe to
replace a leaky area of Line 6A it removed from the ground on
Monday. The line could be fixed by late Tuesday if X-rays
showed the seams were secure.
* U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly rose by 3.3 million
barrels in the week to Sept. 10, a period comprising at least
one day of the Enbridge shutdown, as imports increased, the
American Petroleum Institute (API) said on Tuesday. []
* The API last week reported that crude stocks had fallen a
massive 7.3 million barrels in the week to Sept. 3 to 354.2
million barrels, but on Tuesday revised the week-ago figure to
358.5 million. Coupled with the latest gain, inventories are
now almost unchanged from where they stood two weeks ago.
* Gasoline stocks fell by 963,000 barrels, compared with
forecasts for a 700,000-barrel drop, the API said. Distillates
including heating oil and diesel fell by 1.5 million barrels,
versus predictions for a 300,000-barrel gain.
* Government data from the Energy Information
Administration, due on Wednesday at 1430 GMT, are expected to
show U.S. crude stocks fell 2.2 million barrels last week.
[]
* This week's inventory reports include data through Sept.
10, the day after a leak forced the shutdown of Enbridge's
670,000 barrel-per-day 6A pipeline, which carries Canadian
crude oil to U.S. refineries in the Midwest and the oil hub in
Cushing, Oklahoma, the pricing point for the U.S. benchmark.
MARKETS NEWS
* Asian stocks were seen making a modest start on
Wednesday, as U.S. retail sales data fed optimism about
recovery and markets consolidated their gains from a strong
start to the week. []
* The dollar dropped to a new 15-year low against the yen
on Wednesday as the U.S. currency was hurt by talk of more
quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve. []
DATA/EVENTS
* The following data is expected on Wednesday, GMT:
- 0300 Japan PAJ oil inventory to Sep 11
- 0900 Eurozone Inflation, final yy Aug
- 1230 U.S. Import prices mm Aug
- 1315 U.S. Industrial output mm Aug
- 1430 U.S. EIA weekly oil inventories to Sep 10
RELATED NEWS
* A trio of potentially dangerous storms swirled over the
Atlantic Basin on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Karl formed in the
Caribbean on a path that could take it over oil-production
facilities in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. []
(Reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa; Editing by Manash Goswami)
