REFILE-UPDATE 3-Oil edges lower after rise in U.S. gasoline stocks

(Corrects day in first paragraph)
* Brent down 0.2%, WTI down 0.3%
* Oil prices are down sharply this week
* Interactive graphic on U.S. petroleum stocks: https://tmsnrt.rs/2XkQF8e

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin
LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Oil edged lower on Thursday,
unable to shake off the downbeat mood of the last two days in
response to a sharp rise in U.S. stockpiles of products such as
gasoline, pointing to weak demand during the summer driving
season in the United States.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures were down 10 cents at $63.56 a
barrel by 0840 GMT. They fell 1% on Wednesday, and 3% on
Tuesday.
U.S West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 futures were down
19 cents at $56.59. The U.S. benchmark dropped 1.5% in the
previous session, and 3% on Tuesday.
Mixed signals from the United States and Iran also left
market in limbo. U.S President Donald Trump said on Tuesday
progress had been made with Iran but Tehran denied it was
willing to negotiate over its missile programme. U.S. officials also said on Wednesday they were unsure
whether an oil tanker towed into Iranian waters was seized, or
rescued. Data on Wednesday from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in
crude stockpiles last week, but traders focused instead on large
builds in refined product inventories dragging prices down.
U.S. crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell 3.1 million
barrels, the EIA said, more than analysts' forecasts for a
decrease of 2.7 million barrels. But gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose 3.6 million barrels,
compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a
925,000-barrel drop. Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI grew by
5.7 million barrels, much more than expectations for a
613,000-barrel increase, the EIA data showed.
"Due to the combination of unattractive weekly statistics on
U.S. oil inventories from the EIA and sluggish performances from
the stock markets Tuesday's sell-off did not turn out to be a
buying opportunity, at least not for the time being," PVM
analyst Tamas Varga said.
Crude production was disrupted last week by Storm Barry,
which came ashore on Saturday in central Louisiana as a Category
1 hurricane, the first major storm to hit the U.S. Gulf of
Mexico this season.
More than half of daily crude production in the Gulf of
Mexico remained offline by Tuesday, as most oil companies were
re-staffing facilities to resume production.
The "easing of tensions between the U.S. and Iran, mixed
Chinese growth data and storm-hit operations getting back online
are all pressuring oil prices downward," Alfonso Esparza senior
market analyst at OANDA, said.
Japan's exports fell for a seventh straight month in June,
with shipments to China falling more than 10%, while Japanese
manufacturers' business confidence fell to a three-year low.
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TECHNICALS-Brent oil may fall to $61.48 L4N24J0BI
U.S. crude inventories, weekly changes since 2017 png https://tmsnrt.rs/2XlX17b
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