UPDATE 2-Oil steady under $75, key U.S. data eyed

                                
 * Technicals show oil headed towards $72.81 [ID:nSGE68M00K]
                                
 * Coming Up: U.S. weekly jobless claims; 1230 GMT
 
 (Adds comment, updates prices, PREVIOUS SINGAPORE)
                                
 By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
                                
 LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Oil was steady below $75 on
Thursday with markets looking to key U.S. data for the next
clues on the state of the economy of the world's biggest oil
user, where fuel inventories have swollen to record levels.
                                
 Economic data later in the day include U.S. weekly jobless
claims and existing home sales for August. Government data on
Wednesday showed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude and
gasoline stockpiles.
                                
 The inventory increase last week, despite the eight day
shutdown of the biggest pipeline shipping Canadian crude to the
U.S., reaffirmed views that prices would mostly remain
rangebound for the rest of the year between $70 and $80, the
preferred level for OPEC producers.
                                
 Front-month U.S. crude for November <CLc1> fell 1 cent to
cents to $74.70 a barrel by 0802 GMT, while November ICE Brent
<LCOc1> fell 30 cents to $77.65. 
                                
 "(The data) is showing that the U.S. continues to build.
There is still a huge stock overhang in the U.S. and the
situation is not improving," Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix said.
                                
 "The fundamentals per se are not bullish for oil."
                                
 The so-called OPEC basket price that the organisation uses
to gauge the rate of crudes from its members has averaged $75.24
so far this year.
                                
 "The oil price that key OPEC leaders signalled as being a
fair and reasonable one during the weakest phase of the economic
cycle has dominated the year, even if it could now be argued
that the economic cycle has moved on a bit," Barclays Capital
analysts headed by Paul Horsnell said.
  
                                
 RECORD LEVELS
                                
 U.S. total petroleum stockpiles climbed to a record 1.144
billion barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration
said, the highest level since it began collecting weekly data in
1990. [EIA/S]
                                
 Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a decrease of 1.9
million barrels after a leak forced the shutdown of Enbridge's
<ENB.TO> 670,000-bpd 6A pipeline, which supplies refineries in
the Midwest and carries Canadian crude oil to the key storage
hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. 
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                                
 For a graphic on Brent's premium to U.S. crude:
http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/AS/0810/ABE_20102309135148.jpg^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
                                
 U.S. regulators approved a gradual restart of an Enbridge
Inc <ENB.TO> oil pipeline that ruptured more than eight weeks
ago, Line 6B, fouling a Michigan river system and squeezing oil
supplies for U.S. and Canadian refiners. [ID:nN2213370]
                                
 The U.S. National Hurricane Center on Wednesday said there
was a 60 percent chance a tropical depression could form in the
central southern Caribbean Sea over the next 48 hours.
[ID:nN22223255]
                                
 Most computer weather models continued to forecast the
system would move west across the Caribbean and hit Central
America in Honduras or Belize in about four or five days,
missing U.S. oil and natural gas operations in the northern Gulf
of Mexico.
 (Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore)