* Brent rides the coattails of European and Wall St stocks
rally
* U.S. crude ends down 11 cents, reopening from Labor Day
holiday
* Coming Up: API report on weekly crude stockpiles on
Wednesday
(Adds post-settlement prices, Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) shutting down crude
unit at Illinois refinery for maintenance)
By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Brent crude settled up 4
percent on Tuesday as strength in stock markets helped the
global oil benchmark recoup the bulk of its losses from the
previous session.
U.S. crude fell slightly in volatile trade, reopening from
Monday's U.S. markets closure for the Labor Day holiday to news
of refinery outages.
The divergence between Brent and U.S. crude could grow if
weekly crude inventories cited on Wednesday by industry group
American Petroleum Institute (API) turn out to be higher than
expected by the market.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect U.S. crude stockpiles to
have risen by 200,000 barrels for the week ended Sept. 4.
API's weekly inventory report, usually due on Tuesdays, will
be issued on Wednesday this time due to Monday's Labor Day
holiday. The official report on weekly stockpiles, due on
Wednesdays from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, will
be delayed till Thursday. EIA/S
Brent rose early on Tuesday as European equity markets took
off on bullish second-quarter euro zone growth and stellar
German exports data. Gains in Brent accelerated in New York
after the European equities rally extended to Wall Street.
London-traded Brent LCOc1 settled up $1.89 at $49.52 a
barrel, and was at $49.50 by 4:35 p.m. EDT (2135 GMT) in
post-settlement trade. It fell $1.98 in the previous session.
Offsetting some of the bullish sentiment in Brent was
China's mixed data on crude imports for August. The data showed
a 6 percent gain year-on-year and 10 percent rise for the first
eight months, but a 13 percent slide from July.
Also weighing on Brent was the growing potential for Iran to
flood the oil market with more supply as the Obama
administration gained further congressional support in its
campaign to lift nuclear-related sanctions on Tehran crude
exports.
U.S. crude CLc1 settled down 11 cents, or almost a quarter
percent, at $45.94, and was at $45.86 by 4:35 p.m. It had fallen
almost $2 earlier in the session.
U.S. crude was weighed by the closure of the largest crude
distillation unit at Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Corp's XOM.N 502,500
barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, on Sunday
due to steam generation failure.
Valero Energy Corp (NYSE:VLO) VLO.N was also shutting a 45,000-bpd
hydrocracking unit at its 335,000-bpd refinery in Port Arthur,
Texas, sources familiar with the plant's operations, said on
Tuesday.
Phillips 66 PSX.N , meanwhile, has started shutting down
the 182,000 bpd crude unit at its Wood River, Illinois refinery
for planned maintenance ahead of its Sept. 11 schedule, sources
familiar with the plant said. The shutdown, to last up to 35
days of planned work, comes after the unexpected closure of its
42,000 bpd fluid catalytic cracker due to a leak.