CORRECTED-UPDATE 6-Oil jumps as Trump talks up truce hopes for Saudi-Russia price war

(Corrects timestamp in paragraph 2)
* Trump says he expects Saudi Arabia-Russia deal soon
* U.S. crude stockpiles post biggest weekly rise since 2016
* U.S. jobless claims due at 1230 GMT

By Julia Payne
LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) - Crude oil futures jumped 10% on
Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he expected
Saudi Arabia and Russia to reach a deal soon to end their oil
price war.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures rose more than 11% in early
trade. By 1032 GMT, Brent was up 10.75%, or $2.66, to $27.40,
while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures
rose 10.09% or $2.05, to $22.36.
Trump said he had talked recently with the leaders of both
Russia and Saudi Arabia and believed the two countries would
make a deal to end their price war within a "few days" -
lowering production and bringing prices back up. Trump also said he had invited U.S. oil executives to the
White House to discuss ways to help the industry "ravaged" by
slumping energy demand during the coronavirus outbreak and the
Saudi Arabia/Russia price war.
"Oil prices are seeing their biggest gains in two weeks this
morning...There are two key factors...both of which, however,
are not enough to save oil prices from further declines,"
Rystad's head of oil markets Bjornar Tonhaugen said in a daily
note.
"The first, U.S. oil diplomacy efforts towards Saudi Arabia
and Russia ... The second big news driving the positive
sentiment was rumours that China will speed up its crude
purchases for their strategic stockpiles."
Speaking at a government meeting on Wednesday, Putin said
that both oil producers and consumers should find a solution
that would improve the "challenging" situation of global oil
markets. Saudi Arabia supports co-operation between oil producers to
stabilise the market but Russia's opposition to a proposal last
month to deepen supply cuts has caused market turmoil, a senior
Gulf source familiar with Saudi thinking told
Reuters. Some analysts said there was still a long way to go before
any output cut agreement is struck.
With markets facing 15 million barrels per day (bpd) of
oversupply in the second quarter and storage maxing out in
April, extraordinary curtailments of oil supply will be needed
in May and June, said Kang Wu, head of Asia analytics at S&P
Global Platts.
He said Brent prices need to drop to low-$10 per barrel to
force immediate supply curtailment. He forecast that global oil
demand would decline by around 4.5 million bpd this year.
Saudi Arabia's crude supply rose on Wednesday to a record of
more than 12 million barrels per day, two industry sources said,
despite a plunge in demand and U.S. pressure on the country to
stop flooding the market. "This is a clear sign that the Saudis are not ready to back
off in the price war, despite the Russians now saying that they
will not increase output given the current oversupply in the
market," ING said in a research note on Thursday.
U.S. crude stockpiles rose 13.8 million barrels in their
biggest weekly increase since 2016 and analysts expected stocks
to keep rising as refineries curb output and gasoline demand
falls. "At the current price, many U.S. oil exploring energy
companies won't be able to make a profit and drilling activities
might fall in North America," CMC Markets analyst Margaret Yang
said.
U.S. shale producer Whiting Petroleum Corp WLL.N , once the
largest oil producer in North Dakota, on Wednesday became the
first publicly traded casualty of the oil price collapse as it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.