Oil prices extend slide to 3rd straight day, U.S.-China trade doubts grow

* Brent, WTI futures fall 0.5%
* U.S. crude stocks rise more than expected - API

By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped for a third
consecutive session on Wednesday as the prospect of the United
States and China striking a trade deal in talks this week
dimmed, raising uncertainties for global economic growth and oil
demand.
U.S. industry data showing a bigger-than-expected rise in
stockpiles at the world's top oil producer also depressed
prices: Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell 27 cents, or 0.5%, to
$57.97 a barrel by 0148 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate
crude CLc1 was at $52.38, down 25 cents or 0.5%.
Negotiators from the world's top two economies will meet in
Washington on Thursday and Friday in the latest effort to hammer
out a deal aimed at ending a long-running trade dispute that has
slowed global economic growth.
But tensions between the pair rose this week after the
United States imposed visa restrictions on Chinese officials for
the detention or abuse of Muslim minorities, while a row
escalated over comments by a leading U.S. National Basketball
Association official in support of protests in Hong Kong.
The issues have set markets on a risk-aversion course, said
Howie Lee, an economist with Singapore's OCBC bank, even though
the global oil market remains in a supply deficit which should
in theory support prices at above $60 a barrel.
"The market is just over-bearish at the moment, too focused
on the demand side of the equation," Lee said.
That has even overshadowed the threat of losing at least a
third of Ecuador's oil supply amid anti-government protests in
the member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries that have seriously affected oil output.
Ecuadorean state-run firm Petroamazonas estimates it could
lose some 188,000 barrels per day (bpd), or more than a third of
its crude production, due to unrest at its facilities.
In the United States, meanwhile, crude stockpiles rose by
4.1 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 4 to 422 million,
data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed
on Tuesday. Analysts had expected an increase of 1.4 million
barrels, a Reuters poll showed. EIA/S
The weekly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
report is due at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday.
The EIA said on Tuesday U.S. crude production is expected to
rise by 1.27 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019 to a record
12.26 million bpd, slightly above its previous forecast for a
rise of 1.25 million bpd. Output in 2020 is forecast to rise by 910,000 bpd to 13.17
million bpd, according to the EIA, lower than its previous
estimate of a rise of 990,000 bpd to 13.23 million bpd.