UPDATE 7-Oil hits 5-month highs as U.S. producers cut output ahead of hurricane

* Hurricane Laura poses biggest threat to U.S. oil in 15
years
* Oil producers cut 84% of U.S. Gulf of Mexico output
* China, U.S. to push forward with Phase 1 trade deal
* POLL-U.S. crude stocks seen down for the fifth straight
week
* Coming up: API inventory data at 2030 GMT
*
* Two European patients re-infected with the coronavirus

(Adds closing prices, storm updates, background)
By Scott DiSavino
NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Crude oil prices rose to a
five-month high on Tuesday as U.S. producers shut most offshore
output in the Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Laura even as
rising coronavirus cases in Asia and Europe capped gains.
Brent futures LCOc1 rose 73 cents, or 1.6%, to settle at
$45.86 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude
CLc1 rose 73 cents, or 1.7%, to settle at $43.35.
That was the highest closes for both benchmarks since March
5, the day before Saudi Arabia and Russia failed to agree on a
new plan to cut output and about a week before the World Health
Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
U.S. producers cut crude output ahead of Hurricane Laura at
a rate approaching the level of 2005's Hurricane Katrina and
also halted most oil refining along the Texas/Louisiana coast.

Laura is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane with
115 mile per hour (185 kph) winds before it strikes the coast
near the Texas-Louisiana border early Thursday, according to the
U.S. National Hurricane Center. On Tuesday, producers had evacuated 310 offshore facilities
and shut 1.56 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude output, 84%
of Gulf of Mexico's offshore production, near the 90% outage
that Katrina brought 15 years ago. "Today's strength was again almost entirely attributable to
storm concerns," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch
and Associates in Galena, Illinois, noting the storm factor
would likely overshadow the weekly storage report from the U.S.
Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Analysts forecast U.S. crude stockpiles fell for a fifth
week in a row last week, according to a Reuters poll conducted
ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API) at
4:30 p.m. (2030 GMT) on Tuesday and the government on Wednesday.
EIA/S
"Overall, hurricanes may be limiting supply this week ...
but the market will soon again focus on the biggest hurricane of
them all, COVID-19," said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets
at Rystad Energy.
Europe is seeing a rise in coronavirus cases, including
re-infection. Two re-infections were reported in Europe and one
in Hong Kong. Elsewhere, U.S. and Chinese trade officials reaffirmed their
commitment to a Phase 1 trade deal.