* Rising U.S. gasoline inventories weigh on prices
* U.S. crude stocks drop more than expected
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Oil hovered near multi-month
lows on Thursday with Brent under $50 a barrel after investors
sold crude on worries about rising U.S. gasoline inventories as
peak summer demand comes to an end.
Gasoline stocks in the United States rose more than
expected, overriding a bullish picture from a
larger-than-expected drop in crude stockpiles and pushing prices
down overnight to multi-month lows.
"We're talking about September crude runs now and that's
pretty much past summer," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager at
Mitsubishi Corp.
"The U.S. has (cheap) crude supply and can keep runs high
but the rest of the world is not looking so good ... We remain
oversupplied and world-wide inventories are high."
September Brent crude LCOc1 gained 12 cents at $49.71 a
barrel by 0305 GMT after dropping to $49.02 on Wednesday, the
lowest since Jan. 30.
U.S. crude CLc1 edged up 2 cents at $45.17 a barrel, after
touching an intraday low of $44.83 in the previous session, the
weakest since March 20.
"We are probably getting close to the bottom. At $40, in the
longer term, a lot of projects don't make sense," Nunan said.
U.S. crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell 4.41 million
barrels, nearly three times more than the 1.5-million-barrel
drop analysts had expected, data from the Energy Information
Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday. EIA/S
Gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose by 811,000 barrels, the
EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll
for about a 500,000-barrel drop. EIA/S
Investors are also eyeing key jobs data due on Friday in the
United States that could re-affirm that the Federal Reserve is
likely to raise interest rates in September.
A rate hike would likely strengthen the greenback, a
negative for dollar-denominated oil because it becomes more
expensive for holders of other currencies.
Technical charts showed Brent may retest support at $48.98 a
barrel, with a break below that indicating prices could test the
next support at $47.71, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said.
U.S. crude is expected to fall further to $44.31 a barrel as
it has pierced below support at $45.17, Wang said. TECH/C
(Editing by Tom Hogue)