(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments;
new byline, changes dateline previously TOKYO/LONDON)
By Jessica Resnick-Ault
NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Global benchmark Brent crude
pared losses Wednesday and the U.S. crude price rose on hopes
that a U.S. economic stimulus deal would support the market,
even as concerns about coronavirus continued to loom over demand
forecasts.
U.S. House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin both expressed hope for a
breakthrough on COVID-19 relief, as the House stood poised to
vote on a new $2.2 trillion Democratic coronavirus bill.
With pressure mounting ahead of the Nov. 3 election, Mnuchin
said he thought that he and Pelosi could "reach a reasonable
compromise" and would know in the next day or two whether they
had an "overall understanding."
"The race is on to a stimulus bill," said Bob Yawger,
director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. "It's good for
all industries, and especially for oil, because it is a demand
indicator for crude demand," he said. While Yawger remains
pessimistic about a deal coming to fruition, he said it is
lending temporary strength to the market.
Progress on the stimulus brought Brent crude for
November delivery off its session low of $40.30 a barrel. It was
down 19 cents, or 0.5%, to $40.84 per barrel by 12:06 p.m. EDT
(1406 GMT). West Texas Intermediate rose 59 cents, or
1.48% to $39.88 a barrel.
The November Brent contract expires on Wednesday, to be
replaced by the December contract, which was up 42 cents, or 1%,
at $41.98.
Also supporting prices, U.S. weekly crude inventory data
showed stockpiles fell by 2 million barrels in the week to Sept.
25, a deeper draw than analysts had expected.
Exports rose while imports fell, helping facilitate the
drawdown. Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by
536,000 barrels per day, EIA said, to 1.6 million bpd.
The benchmarks fell more than 3% on Tuesday as global
COVID-19 cases passed 1 million, having doubled in three months.
. A Reuters monthly oil poll showed prices would
have little upside this year .
"The increasing number of COVID-19 cases continues to raise
alarm bells on energy demand," said Avtar Sandu, senior
commodities manager at Phillip Futures.
CEOs of the world's biggest trading companies are
forecasting a weak recovery for oil demand and little movement
in prices, potentially for years.
Marathon Petroleum Corp, the largest oil refiner in
the United States, started imposing job cuts on Tuesday,
according to people familiar with the matter.
Royal Dutch Shell also said it would cut up to
9,000 jobs.
To counter the fall in demand, the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries is unlikely to increase oil
production as planned from January next year, top oil traders
said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault; additional reporting by
Dmitry Zhdannikov and Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by David
Gregorio, Elaine Hardcastle and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)