UPDATE 9-Brent crude jumps back above $110, halts 3-day slide

* More North Sea Forties cargo delays
* China data show factory sector shrinking
* Coming up: CFTC positions data 3:30 p.m. EDT Friday

(Updates post-settle prices, adds detail, paragraphs
3,10,12-14,17)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Brent crude prices rallied
back above $110 a barrel on Thursday, recovering from a six-week
low and halting a three-day slide, while the expiring U.S.
front-month October crude dipped slightly and posted a fourth
straight loss.
Lending support to the oil futures complex, U.S. gasoline
futures jumped 2.6 percent, supported by a fire at
Venezuela's 146,000 barrel-per-day El Palito refinery and a
decline in the U.S. gasoline inventory, reported by the
government on Wednesday.
Gaining 7.54 cents, gasoline settled at $2.9040 a gallon,
climbing back above the 100-day moving average of $2.8806.
Heating oil futures gained more than 1 percent.
The Venezuelan fire followed last month's blaze at the OPEC
member's Amuay 645,00 bpd refinery. The U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA) said domestic gasoline stocks fell 1.41
million barrels last week.
Brent's drop to $107.10 a barrel early on Thursday, the
lowest price since Aug. 3, pegged the retreat from last Friday's
settlement at more than $10.
"We do regard the scale and above all the speed of the price
slide as excessive," a Commerzbank research note said. "We
expect to see a counter-movement in the next few days."
Brent's premium to U.S. crude CL-LCO1=R tested below $16 a
barrel and found support above the $15.50 level a fourth
straight day, then bounced back above $17. Wednesday's $15.57
low was the narrowest spread since July 25, according to Reuters
data.
News of additional North Sea Forties crude oil cargoes
delayed in October because of lower-than-expected production
gave Brent additional lift.
Brent November crude rose $1.84 to settle at $110.03
a barrel, but reached $110.60 in post-settlement trading.
U.S. October crude dipped 11 cents, expiring and
going off the board at $91.87 a barrel, after slipping to
$90.66, just below the 100-day moving average of $90.73 and the
lowest price since Aug. 6.
U.S. November crude rose 12 cents to settle at
$92.42, having fallen to $90.96 and reaching $93.09 in
post-settlement trading.
Total Brent trading volume outpaced U.S. turnover, with
Brent 42 percent above its 30-day average, while U.S. crude
lagged its 30-day average by 9 percent.
Brent reached $117.95 and U.S. crude $100.42, both
four-month peaks, last Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve's
launch of a third monetary stimulus program. The potential for
supply disruption due to the ongoing Middle East turmoil and the
dispute between the West and Iran over Tehran's controversial
nuclear program also provided lift.
But concerns about the economic weakness prompting central
bank action, indications that OPEC's top exporter Saudi Arabia
is working to lower oil prices, and rising U.S. crude oil
inventories helped fuel this week's price slide.
U.S. crude oil stockpiles jumped 8.5 million barrels last
week, the EIA's report showed, far more than expected.

WEAK ECONOMIC DATA
Helping curb U.S. crude prices, data on Thursday showed U.S.
manufacturing closed out its weakest quarter in three years this
month and U.S. jobless claims held near two-month highs last
week, suggesting stalled economic growth.
Crude felt pressure from news that the HSBC Flash China
manufacturing purchasing index (PMI) for September was 47.8,
well below the 50 level that separates contraction from
expansion, although a shade higher than the nine-month low of
47.6 reached in August.
The weak China factory data came a day after the Ministry of
Commerce said the export outlook in the world's No. 2 oil
consumer was poor and demand would remain weak in the next few
months.
"If China hits a wall, and Europe falls out from under us,
then we're going to be falling back into a recession, and that
could be worse than the Great Depression," said Tony Nunan, an
oil risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.
But other analysts noted the weakness reflected in the data
might spur government efforts to support economic growth and
prompt China to launch its stimulus program, joining the U.S.
and Japanese central banks.

(Additional reporting by Peg Mackey in London and Luke
Pachymuthu and Ramya Venugopal in Singapore; Editing by John
Wallace, Sofina Mirza-Reid and Marguerita Choy)