* U.S. crude oil inventories rise slightly less thanexpected
* But U.S. crude stocks are still back above 5-year average
* U.S. crude output reaches another record at 10.37 mln bpd
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, March 8 (Reuters) - Oil prices steadied onThursday after falling the previous day on the back of recordU.S. crude production and rising inventories.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $64.49 per barrel at0100 GMT, up 15 cents, or 0.2 percent, from their previousclose. That slight rise came after a more than 2 percent fallthe previous day.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 wereat $61.29 a barrel, up 14 cents, or 0.2 percent. WTI also fellby more than 2 percent the previous session.
The slight recovery on Thursday came amid a U.S. crudeinventory build that was not as big as expected during thecurrent seasonal demand lull at the end of winter, when many oilrefineries shut down for maintenance.
"Oil prices bounced back immediately after the release ofthe weekly oil inventories data from the Energy InformationAdministration ... (where) the headline figure was better thanexpected," said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at futuresbrokerage Forex.com.
The EIA reported late on Wednesday that U.S. crudeinventories C-STK-EIA rose by 2.4 million barrels in the weekto March 2, to 425.91 million barrels, less than the 2.7 millionbarrel increase analysts had forecast. this, oil markets remain under pressure from theseasonal trend of rising inventories, which in the United Stateshave climbed back above the 5-year average of 420 millionbarrels.
Also looming over oil markets is soaring U.S. production,which last week marked another record, at 10.37 million barrelsper day (bpd).
"Crude is ... under pressure from rising U.S. productionwhich hit a new high last week, now firmly above Saudi Arabia'sproduction level," said William O'Loughlin, investment analystat Australia's Rivkin Securities.
At just below 11 million bpd, only Russia currently producesmore crude oil than the United States, although theInternational Energy Agency (IEA) expects even this to change asthe United States is set to surge past 11 million bpd by late2018. U.S. output outpacing demand growth, analysts say theOrganization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) andRussia, who together with some other producers have beenwithholding production in order to prop up prices, are underpressure to keep up the supply restraint, even at the cost ofmarket share. may ... have to extend its production agreement withRussia and co in order to avoid triggering another 2014-stylesell-off in oil prices," said Razaqzada.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^GRAPHIC: U.S. commercial crude oil inventories
http://reut.rs/2Fl0mPlGRAPHIC: Russia vs Saudi vs U.S. oil production
http://reut.rs/2FrFVMFTAKE A LOOK-Changing energy markets in focus at CERAWeek