UPDATE 8-Oil rises on strong factory activity, crude drawdown forecast

* U.S. manufacturing activity at 19-month high in August
* U.S. crude stocks fall more than expected - API
* Reuters poll shows rise in Brent 2020 average to
$42.75/bbl

(Adds API crude stockpile report and post-settlement trade)
By Jessica Resnick-Ault
NEW YORK, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on
Tuesday as better-than-expected U.S. manufacturing activity data
spurred hope for a post-pandemic economic recovery, and as
analysts forecast a sixth weekly drawdown in U.S. crude
inventories.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures settled up 30 cents at $45.58 a
barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 settled at
$42.76 a barrel, up 15 cents. Futures extended gains slightly in
post-settlement trade after trade group the American Petroleum
Institute (API) said U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than
expected in the latest week.
"Everyone is looking for a draw, of one degree or another,
in the API this afternoon," said Bob Yawger, director of energy
futures at Mizuho in New York, ahead of the data. "The
manufacturing numbers and the bullishness around the AstraZeneca
virus vaccine added to the optimism," he said.
U.S. crude inventories were forecast to have fallen by
nearly 2 million barrels last week, according to analysts in a
Reuters poll ahead of weekly data from the American Petroleum
Institute. The group said stockpiles fell by 6.36 million
barrels in the week. EIA/S
U.S. manufacturing activity accelerated to a more than
1-1/2-year high in August amid a surge in new orders, but
employment continued to lag, supporting views that the labor
market recovery was losing momentum. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of
national factory activity increased to a reading of 56.0 last
month from 54.2 in July. That was the highest level since
January 2019 and marked three straight months of growth.
AstraZeneca AZN.L has expanded its previous agreement with
Oxford Biomedica OXB.L to mass-produce the British drugmaker's
COVID-19 vaccine candidate, as it looks to scale-up supply ahead
of a possible fast-track approval from the United States.
Strong Chinese manufacturing data also lifted oil prices,
said Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at OANDA.
The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers'
Index(PMI) showed China's factory activity expanded at the
fastest pace in nearly a decade last month, bolstered by the
first increase in new export orders this year. Bulls also pushed up equities, with the MSCI world equity
index .MIWD00000PUS close to a record peak on Tuesday.
Yet oil, which often moves in tandem with equities, remains
reined in by demand concerns.
In a Reuters poll of 43 analysts and economists, global oil
demand was seen contracting by between 8-10 million barrels per
day (bpd) versus July's 7.2-8.5 million bpd consensus.