SINGAPORE, Sept 4 - Oil prices were steady in Asia on Thursday, waiting on U.S. data for direction after sharp losses earlier this week in expectation the end of the peak gasoline demand season would provide a relief valve for stocks. Benchmark crude prices fell close to seven percent on Tuesday, erasing all the gains since mid July, in a gasoline-led sell-off after the long Labor Day weekend in the United States, the last public holiday of the summer. Gasoline stocks in the world's biggest energy consumer had tightened close to three-year lows as demand rose and supply tightened owing to various refinery problems in the run up to the Labor Day holiday. On Thursday, the key New York Mercantile Exchange October crude contract was down just four cents at $29.45 a barrel, down 6.7 percent from Friday and 26 percent below the 2003 peak price of $39.99.
Traders said they are waiting for weekly oil stocks data from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration, scheduled for release later on Thursday, to provide clues on the next move for prices. A survey of six energy market analysts estimated U.S. gasoline stocks fell about 1.2 million barrels to 190 million in the week ended August 29 as retailers stocked up ahead of the holiday weekend. Distillate stocks, which include important heating oil for winter, were expected to rise slightly. Last week, heating oil stocks were 20 percent below year-ago levels. Crude stocks were expected to show a rise of 1.25 million barrels to about 280 million barrels on steady imports. Oil prices have hovered for several weeks around the top of OPEC's $22-$28 price range, used by the group to help determine when to relax or tighten official production, prompting some calls for the cartel to increase supply heading into peak demand winter in the northern hemisphere.
But the cartel's dominant producer, Saudi Arabia, said world oil markets were balanced and would stay that way for at least the next two months. "There is probably no need to do very much at the next OPEC meeting," the kingdom's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, told reporters in Moscow. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls half the world's oil exports, is due to meet on September 24 in Vienna to review production policy. A patchy recovery in war-torn Iraq's crude production pushed up OPEC oil output in August, a survey showed on Wednesday. The 11-member group pumped 26.81 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, 280,000 bpd above July, the survey found. A spokesman for Iraq's U.S.-led administration said on Wednesday that oil exports through Iraq's northern pipeline to Turkey, one of two export routes, would not resume within the next few days as planned.//