SINGAPORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) US oil prices extended gains to near \$73 a barrel on Wednesday as fear

SINGAPORE, Aug 15 (Reuters) US oil prices extended gains to near $73 a barrel on Wednesday as fears that production could be disrupted by a gathering Gulf storm outweighed credit worries that slammed other markets.

US light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 47 cents to $72.85 a barrel by 0217 GMT, building on a 76 cent rise a day ago.

Crude is rebounding from its lowest in over a month after a wave of profit-taking and long liquidation.

London Brent crude rose 39 cents to $70.90 a barrel, lagging the U.S. gains after a 28 cent rise on Tuesday.

Shell shut in 5 million cubic feet per day of gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and began evacuating non-essential personnel due to a weather system in the region that later on Tuesday became a tropical depression.

Other energy companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, which produces roughly a third of U.S. domestic oil and gas production, were monitoring the tropical depression, this year's fifth, which formed in the central Gulf.

Tropical Storm Dean also formed in the Atlantic Ocean midway between Africa and the Caribbean on Tuesday, and forecasters said it could become the first Atlantic hurricane of 2007 later in the week, although it was days away from reaching land.

The focus later on Wednesday will shift towards weekly U.S.

inventory data, expected to show a decline in crude stocks of 2.3 million barrels for the week through Aug. 10. S] Distillate stocks, increasingly in the spotlight as some traders start looking ahead to winter, were seen rising by 1.2 million barrels and gasoline stocks falling by 900,000 barrels.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries warned on Tuesday that a slowing U.S. economy and the subprime mortgage crisis could cut oil consumption this year.

But many analysts remained bullish as consumer nation inventories gradually thin, non-OPEC production continues to disappoint and oil demand growth remains robust for now.

''We see crude oil prices heading into some typical seasonal consolidation, with a possible short-term low for WTI in the range of $65 per barrel (possibly higher) by early September at the latest,'' said First Energy Capital analyst Martin King.

The credit squeeze in financial markets, triggered by problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, has sparked widespread selling this month across all assets, and oil traders remain edgy about the repercussions of a widening crisis.

Sentinel Management Group Inc., which acts an intermediary between investors and futures exchanges and oversees about $1.6 billion in assets, told clients in an Aug. 13 letter that it wanted to block redemptions to avoid a forced liquidation.

U.S. stocks skidded lower on Tuesday as fears of a credit squeeze resurfaced just days after central bank cash injections.

REUTERS AE VC0915