UPDATE 8-Oil eases on persistent supply glut, production outlook

* Trade thin as U.S. markets closed for Thanksgiving
* OPEC determined to keep pumping vigorously

(Updates prices)
By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on
Thursday after six days of gains, as concerns that escalating
tension in the Middle East could disrupt supply faded, and the
focus returned to a persistent market glut.
Brent crude LCOc1 settled down 71 cents at $45.46 a
barrel, having earlier dropped more than $1 to a session low of
$45.00 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures, the U.S.
crude benchmark CLc1 , were 53 cents lower at $42.51 per barrel
at 1957 GMT, after rising to $43.30 earlier in the session.
The downing of a Russian jet by Turkey on Monday helped push
up oil prices this week on the risk that rising geopolitical
tension could hit Middle East supplies.
By Thursday, however, those concerns were receding and had
done little to shake the belief that global production will stay
high even as stockpiles rise. A firmer dollar also weighed on
oil as it makes it more expensive for holders of other
currencies.
OPEC is determined to keep pumping oil to defend market
share, alarming some of the group's weaker members who fear
prices may slump towards $20.
"OPEC has been extremely explicit that it will not cut
production in the face of low prices, and with Iran coming back
to the market, it will produce more than 32 million barrels per
day," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodity analyst at SEB in
Oslo.
"Stocks were building all of last year and this. It's
starting to strain inventories and we're starting to run out of
storage space."
Still, while stockpiles are high and rising in the United
States and many European economies, in China commercial crude
oil stocks at the end of October were down 4.4 percent from the
previous month in their biggest drop since at least 2010, the
official Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.
Brent is down by more than 8 percent in November and by 20
percent this year, after tumbling from above $115 per barrel
last year.
U.S. crude had been supported on Wednesday by a
smaller-than-expected build in U.S. inventories and by a fall in
oil rigs, a sign that drillers were waiting for higher prices
before returning to the well pad.
The data helped prevent deeper losses for WTI futures on
Thursday, although trading was thin due to the U.S. Thanksgiving
holiday.