Oil steady below $61; eyes Saudi ports, OPEC cuts

SINGAPORE, Oct 30 (Reuters) Oil treaded water on Monday, holding last week's gains while traders waited for further signs of OPEC's compliance with output curbs and kept a close eye on Saudi oil facilities amid heightened security activity.

U.S. light, sweet crude for December delivery was up 3 cents a barrel at .78 in Globex electronic trading by 0525 GMT after gaining 39 cents on Friday, when news of a possible threat against a key Saudi export terminal spooked traders.

Brent crude rose 4 cents to .12 a barrel.

The U.S. December contract rose 2.4 percent last week as some OPEC members began to implement output cuts, U.S. crude stocks fell sharply and chilly winter weather made an early appearance, helping revive prices from a 2006 low of .55 on Oct. 20.

Prices rose on Friday after Britain's Royal Navy said coalition forces were helping to guard oil installations in top exporter Saudi Arabia -- in particular the Ras Tanura terminal, the kingdom's primary export point -- as part of stepped-up security following an al Qaeda threat last month.

Industry sources said exports continued unaffected but the news revived fears of a possible disruptive attack by al Qaeda, which has repeatedly urged targetting Gulf oil infrastructure.

An attack on Saudi's Abqaiq processing plant in February was foiled.

Dealers will be watching this week for further signs that other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will follow Saudi Arabia and the UAE in telling customers how they will curb production to implement an agreed 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) cut.

''The cut... seems to be taking hold in the mind of the market and so far, seems to be getting backed up with actual shipping reduction notices from the major OPEC members,'' said analyst Martin King at FirstEnergy Capital Corp.

''We believe that reduction announced by OPEC will have a material impact on global stocks of crude oil and products.'' Data for October that emerged on Friday shook some traders' confidence as it showed that output actually rose fractionally to 30.18 million bpd from the month before, consultant Petrologistics said on Friday, despite pledges that month from Nigeria and Venezuela to voluntarily cut back.

Refiners who buy crude from other nations such as Iran and Kuwait say they have yet to see any notice of the new curbs.

Signs of an early or chilly winter in the U.S. Northeast have lent some support to prices, although a Friday forecast by Meteorlogix called for temperatures to return to seasonal norms by later this week, tempering heating fuel demand.

Most longer-term projections have called for a normal to colder-than-usual winter, potentially eroding heating fuel stocks that last week stood 7 percent higher than a year earlier. Crude oil stocks are well above their five-year range.

Last week's data showed robust demand growth in the United States, but figures out on Monday showed China's implied oil demand rose only 3 percent in September from a year ago, the slowest pace since a contraction in January.

REUTERS PKS DS1138