Brent ebbs on growth gloom, U.S. crude aims for parity

By Samantha Sunne

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent crude oil prices dipped on Wednesday, threatening to touch new six-year lows after an unexpected big rise in U.S. crude and fuel inventories and a dimmer view of world economic growth next year.

U.S. crude prices gained despite the stockbuild, threatening to once again reach parity to the European marker as dealers bid for barrels to put into storage, taking advantage of a widening gap between depressed short-term prices and higher longer-term ones.

Late on Tuesday, the World Bank lowered its 2015 and 2016 world economic growth forecasts, reinforcing worries about sluggish demand growth in the oversupplied energy markets.

Brent fell 24 cents to $46.38 a barrel by 1:24 p.m. EST (1824 GMT), after reaching a high of $47.14. The benchmark hit a low of $45.19 on Tuesday, the lowest since March 2009, amid increasing U.S. stocks and a continuing global supply glut.

U.S. crude traded 11 cents higher at $46.00, narrowing its discount to Brent 50 cents to 20 cents.

The spread, or transatlantic arbitrage, had closed on Tuesday at 70 cents after both contracts both traded at $46 for the first time since October.

"(With the) velocity of the downward trend that we've been in, you can expect to see any violent snapbacks," said Tariq Zahir of Tyche Capital.

U.S. government data showed crude stocks rose 5.4 million barrels, more than 10 times what analysts had expected. Inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for the U.S. futures contract, rose 1.8 million barrels. [EIA/S]

But the big builds in inventories may have been offset by figures showing an increase in demand, said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

"This really just offset an atrocious demand figure last week," he said.

Even as the market appeared to pause from a seven-month rout that has knocked about 60 percent off prices, few analysts were ready to call for a bottom.

"I think it's just a bit of short covering that's still going on, to be honest," said Dominick Chirichella of the Energy Management Institute. "I think we're still in a downtrend."

(Additional reporting by Libby George and Himanshu Ojha in London, Henning Gloystein and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy)