Oil down 2 percent; U.S. stockpiles offset output freeze talk

By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 2 percent on Thursday, heading for their sharpest weekly loss since January, as investors brushed aside talk that OPEC might freeze production and focused on a growing glut from U.S. crude stockpiles.

Energy monitoring service Genscape's report of a 714,282-barrel drawdown at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery point for U.S. crude futures during the week ended on Aug. 30 did little to bolster sentiment, traders said.

Investors focused instead on Wednesday's government data showing a 2.3 million-barrel build in U.S. crude stocks in the last week, more than double what the market had expected. Inventories of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, rose nearly 10 times as much as forecast, the data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed.

Brent crude futures were down $1.07, or 2.3 percent, at $45.82 a barrel by 11:39 a.m. EDT (1539 GMT).

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell $1.12, or 2.5 percent, to $43.58 a barrel.

Both Brent and WTI were down more than 8 percent week-to-date for their biggest decline since mid-January.

Oil prices rose as much 11 percent in August, posting their best monthly return since April, on speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers might agree on curbing output at Sept. 26-28 talks in Algeria.

That speculation has since fizzled, although Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Thursday that OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers were moving toward a common position on production.

"Talk is cheap," Harry Tchilinguirian, global head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas, told the Reuters Global Oil Forum. "Reality will set in, and the market will realise that the agendas of various OPEC producers are not aligned."

Analysts said oil could come under further pressure if August U.S. jobs data, which is due on Friday, shows considerable labor market growth that could prop up the dollar, which hit three-week highs this week.

(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in LONDON and Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)