* Investors await more stimulus from U.S., EU, China
* Sudan, S.Sudan reach oil transit fee deal, border talk
next
* Coming up: U.S. employment trends for July; 1400 GMT
(Updates previous Singapore)
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Oil retreated from last week's
gains, easing towards $108 a barrel on Monday as investors took
profits and awaited more clues on the health of the global
economy and the outlook for oil demand.
Prices jumped on Friday on better U.S. jobs data and talk of
stimulus measures by the euro zone to support growth.
Supply disruptions in the North Sea and the Middle East also
lent support although Sudanese crude exports could resume soon
following agreement between Sudan and South Sudan on oil transit
fees.
Brent crude slipped 36 cents to $108.58 a barrel by
0837 GMT after jumping nearly 3 percent on Friday. U.S. crude
edged down 45 cents to $90.95 after surging close to 5
percent in the previous session.
"Prices did rise quite a lot so it's probably profit-taking
going on," said Michael Creed, an economist at the National
Australia Bank.
U.S. employers hired the most workers in five months in
July, but an increase in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent kept
prospects of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve
on the table.
Expectations for more stimulus measures from the euro zone
to support the debt-laden region and the latest pledge by China,
the world's top energy consumer, to step up monetary policy
fine-tuning were also helping to keep a floor under oil
prices.
"There is a greater degree of optimism in commodities
surrounding the euro zone than 2-3 weeks ago," Creed said.
"We are still awaiting details regarding what Draghi meant
by he'll do anything to maintain the euro."
The market is now eyeing data from China due later this week
that are likely to show the world's second-largest economy is,
at best, stabilising rather than recovering briskly.
SUDANESE OIL DEAL
On the supply side, a fall in North Sea output due to
maintenance and lower exports from Iran on tight Western
sanctions have shored up oil prices.
Adding further support, an explosion on the Iraq-Turkey
pipeline has shut in about 16 percent of Iraq's oil export flow.
Repairs are expected to take up to 10 days.
But Sudanese oil exports may resume soon as Sudan reached a
deal with South Sudan on oil transit fees, a first step towards
ending a dispute which had brought the hostile neighbours close
to war. But Sudan also said it wanted a border security
agreement before oil flows resumed.
Disputes between the countries have reduced Sudanese crude
exports by about 350,000 barrels per day from early this year.
Investors are also watching the approach of Tropical Storm
Ernesto which kept on a westerly course in the Caribbean Sea on
Sunday and was expected to strengthen slowly over the next 48
hours.
Forecasters expect Ernesto to move into the southern Gulf of
Mexico by Thursday but it was too early to know whether it could
disrupt oil and gas operations in the gulf.
(Additional reporting by Florence Tan in Singapore; editing by
Keiron Henderson)

