U.S. crude steady above $90 ahead of stocks data

* U.S. crude stocks expected to fall for 7th week

* China to focus on taming inflation after Q4 GDP up

* Technicals: U.S. oil to fall to $89.81/bbl

By Florence Tan

SINGAPORE, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. crude was steady above $90 a barrel on Thursday ahead of inventory data that is expected to show a decline in crude stocks for a seventh consecutive week, while worries about China stepping up efforts to fight inflation persisted.

China, the world's second largest oil consumer, is likely to focus on taming inflation through tighter monetary policies after its economy maintained a strong growth momentum in the fourth quarter, analysts said. The drain on liquidity may hurt Chinese consumers' appetite for oil.

In Europe, tight supplies of North Sea crude cargoes kept Brent oil futures above $98 a barrel. Traders said Hetco, a trading firm partly owned and backed by U.S. energy giant Hess Corp , has control of 30 percent of February cargoes, giving it more influence over the spot market.

"Temperatures in the U.S. are still below normal at this time of the year, lending some support to oil and gas prices at the moment," Credit Suisse analysts said in a note.

U.S. crude for February delivery edged down 22 cents to $90.64 a barrel by 0248 GMT, after falling for a second session on Wednesday. The February contract expires later on Thursday. London Brent was down 11 cents to $98.05 a barrel.

Goldman Sachs' commodities trading risk has hit a near seven-year low, quarterly results on Wednesday showed, suggesting the Wall Street giant had become less aggressive lately in taking advantage of surging oil, metals and grains prices.

A larger-than-expected drop in U.S. oil inventories or a pick-up in demand could lead to Brent breaking above $100 a barrel, Credit Suisse said.

However, high levels of inventories and spare production capacities may prevent prices moving beyond the psychologically important level, it added.

U.S. crude oil inventories were forecast to have fallen by 600,000 barrels last week as producers cut output after a major pipeline was shut while gasoline and distillate stocks were expected to be higher, according to a Reuters poll.

Late on Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute said U.S. crude stocks rose unexpectedly by 3.53 million barrels in the week to Jan. 14 although Cushing inventories fell by 571,000 barrels.

Distillate and gasoline stocks rose despite a drop in refinery output, according to the API.

Traders were probably looking ahead to weekly government stocks data and the start of refinery maintenance after product prices rose on Wednesday despite crude settling lower, Peter Beutel, president of U.S. trading advisory Cameron Hanover said in a note.

Refinery maintenance will reduce crude demand and cut the supplies of refined products at the same time, he said. (Editing by Himani Sarkar)