Oil prices drop more than 3 pct as investors take profits

By Keith Wallis
SINGAPORE, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 3
percent in early Asian trade on Tuesday, with investors taking
profits after Brent and U.S. crude soared over 8 percent in the
previous session.
The surge was fuelled by an OPEC commentary saying the
cartel was willing to talk to other producers to achieve
reasonable oil prices, as well as by the downward revision of
U.S. output data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration
(EIA). ID:nL9N10A035
"(The OPEC comments) could be just a bit of politicking
given the strategy to date looked to be all about market share,"
ANZ said in a market report on Tuesday.
"But it does suggest that many producers are likely to be
hurting at these levels."
Revised EIA data published on Monday showed U.S. domestic
oil production peaked at just above 9.6 million barrels per day
(bpd) in April before falling by more than 300,000 bpd over the
following two months. ID:nL1N1160WY
Brent crude LCOc1 for October delivery had dropped $1.85
to $52.30 a barrel, or 3.4 percent, as of 0030 GMT after
climbing $4.10, or 8.2 percent, in the previous session.
U.S. crude CLc1 for October delivery dropped $1.86, or 3.8
percent, to $47.35 a barrel, after it settled up $3.98, or 8.8
percent in the previous session.
U.S. crude had climbed 27.5 percent in three days of gains,
the largest three-day increase in dollar terms since February
2011 and the biggest percentage increase since August 1990.
Investors will be watching key data from China and the U.S.
later on Tuesday to give further direction to prices.
That includes official and Caixin PMI data from China for
August and manufacturing and vehicle sales data for August in
the U.S. together with weekly oil stocks data from the American
Petroleum Institute.
U.S. commercial crude stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels to
449.3 million barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll of
analysts on Monday taken ahead of U.S. industry and government
data. ID:nL1N1161T6