OIL PRICE: ABOVE $78

REUTERS - Oil prices fell on Monday as supplies from Saudi Arabia and Russia rose while economic growth stumbled in Asia amid an escalating trade dispute with the United States.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 fell $1.24 a barrel to a low of $77.99 before recovering to $78.40, down 83 cents, by 0735 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was 50 cents lower at $73.65.

Oil prices rose strongly last week, with the U.S. crude contract hitting its highest in 3-1/2 years at $74.46.

But a flurry of U.S. announcements over the weekend unsettled oil markets.

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had agreed to pump more oil, "maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels". The White House later walked back on the comments.

Saudi Arabia's output is up by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) from May, a Reuters survey showed, and close to its 10.72 million bpd record from November 2016.

Russian output rose to 11.06 million bpd in June from 10.97 million bpd in May, the Energy Ministry said on Monday.

U.S. production  has soared 30 percent in the past two years, to 10.9 million bpd, meaning the world's three biggest oil producers now churn out almost 11 million bpd each, meeting a third of global oil demand.

Also weighing on oil demand are trade disputes between the United States and other major economies including China, the European Union, India and Canada.

Asia's main economic hubs of China, Japan and South Korea reported a slowdown in export orders in June amid escalating trade disputes with the United States.

"Recurring salvos in the trade war and falling asset prices raise the question of how much tariffs could damage the global economy," U.S. bank JPMorgan said.

The bank said a "medium-intensity (trade) conflict would likely reduce global economic growth by at least 0.5 percent, "before accounting for tighter financial conditions and sentiment shocks".

Despite the relief from Saudi Arabia and Russia, oil markets remain tense because of unplanned outages from Canada to Venezuela and Libya.

Looming U.S. sanctions against Iran further contribute to expected tightness.

Trump threatened in an interview that aired on Sunday to put sanctions on European companies that do business with Iran.

"The Trump administration's plan for Iran sanctions is now abundantly clear. They seek to push Iranian exports of crude, condensate, and oil products to zero," energy consultancy FGE said in a note.

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Earlier: 

2018, June, 29, 10:55:00 OIL PRICE: NEAR $78 REUTERS - U.S. light crude oil CLc1 was 20 cents lower at $73.25 a barrel at 0730 GMT. On Thursday, the contract hit its highest since November 2014 at $74.03 per barrel. Brent crude LCOc1 was unchanged at $77.85 a barrel.

2018, June, 29, 10:50:00 OIL OUTPUT WILL UP PLATTS - "I think you're going to see a settling-down of the market -- people feeling comfortable that Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States, we've got substantial production," Perry said, while acknowledging pipeline constraints in Texas that are holding back Permian Basin oil exports.

2018, June, 27, 11:20:00 OIL PRICE: NOT ABOVE $77 REUTERS - Brent crude futures LCOc1 had climbed 61 cents, or 0.8 percent, from their last close to $76.92 per barrel by 0650 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $70.88, up 35 cents, or 0.5 percent.

2018, June, 25, 12:35:00 OIL PRICE: NEAR $74 AGAIN REUTERS - Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $74.22 per barrel at 0455 GMT, down 1.8 percent from their last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $68.42 a barrel, down 0.2 percent, supported more than Brent by a slight drop in U.S. drilling activity and a Canadian supply outage.

2018, June, 25, 12:30:00 БОЛЬШЕ НЕФТИ: +1 МБД МИНЭНЕРГО РОССИИ - На пресс-конференции по итогам заседания Министр энергетики Российской Федерации Александр Новак отметил, что доля России в общем увеличении добычи нефти стран ОПЕК и не-ОПЕК в 1 млн баррелей в сутки может составить около 200 тыс.

2018, June, 22, 13:40:00 OIL PRICE: NEAR $74 ANEW REUTERS - Benchmark Brent crude LCOc1 was up $1.05 a barrel at $74.10 by 0925 GMT. U.S. light crude CLc1 was 80 cents higher at $66.34.

2018, June, 22, 13:35:00 ДОБЫЧА НЕФТИ: + 1 МБД МИНЭНЕРГО РОССИИ - По итогам заседания расширенного мониторингового комитета большинством его участников было рекомендовано рассмотреть на предстоящей министерской встрече ОПЕК и последующей за ней министерской встрече с участием не входящих в ОПЕК стран-экспортеров нефти увеличение добычи на 1 млн барр в сутки (от текущего уровня) с распределением этого объема между участниками соглашения.