NEW YORK (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. Oil rig pumpjacks, also known as thirsty birds, extract crude from the Wilmington Field oil deposits area where Tidelands Oil Production Company, which is owned by Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy), operates near Long Beach, California July 30, 2013. REUTERS/David McNew 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. 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 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 Corp’s (XOM.N) 502,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, on Sunday due to steam generation failure. Valero Energy Corp (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. Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Chris Reese and Lisa Shumaker
Brent oil's new figures show that exports rose 2.4% and imports by 2.2%, caused in part by a year-on-year increase in Chinese crude imports. Though crude oil imports fell in China by 13.4% in August compared to July, they rose 5.6% YoY. Commerzbank analyst, Carsten Fitsch, believes that, "people are looking beyond the sharp (monthly) drop in Chinese import data and looking at the stronger details contained within it". For 2H2015, China's imports were up 9.8% YoY, due to a solid demand for kerosene and gasoline.