* U.S. manufacturing grew in August; jobless claims fall
* Part of oil, gas production shut in GoM ahead of storm
* Coming Up: U.S. non-farm payrolls; 1230 GMT
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Brent crude was steady above $114 a barrel, headed for its second straight weekly gain, while investors eyed key U.S. jobs data for clues on whether the world's largest oil consumer would be able to dodge a recession and leave demand growth intact.
Weak data may prompt the Federal Reserve to start a fresh round of policy easing at its next meeting on Sept. 20. Investors were also watching for potential supply disruption in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) as a brewing storm shut nearly 6 percent of output in the key producing region.
Front-month Brent
"The market is still expecting some concrete steps from the Fed to boost the economy," said Yusuke Seta, a commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan, adding that the sentiment helped to support oil prices.
But if the jobs data is weaker than expected, equities could fall and oil may follow, he said.
While the consensus forecasts is for a 75,000 addition to jobs in August, the market is discussing a smaller number after a decline in the employment component of the Institute for Supply Management's factory activity index.
Some analysts were still pessimistic about the macroeconomic outlook and were not pinning hopes on another bond buying, or quantitative easing, by the central bank.
"The recent figures have been pretty poor, and we are not sure why so many prominent economists refuse to see the numbers trending back towards recession," Peter Beutel, president of trading advisory Cameron Hanover said in a note.
"It seems to us that the belief that the Fed will ride to the rescue - even though not everyone wants it to - is overly optimistic."
Latest data showed unexpected growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector in August and fewer jobless claims last week, despite a slump in confidence that threatened to push the economy back into recession.
EYES ON STORMS
In the Gulf of Mexico, major oil and gas producers on Thursday shut down offshore platforms and evacuated workers ahead of a storm brewing offshore that was expected to bring flooding to Louisiana over the weekend.
So far only a fraction of Gulf output was shut as of Thursday-- 5.7 percent of oil supply and 2.4 percent of gas supply, according to the U.S. government.
Those percentages will likely rise significantly in coming days as the storm develops.
Investors were also concerned with outages in the North Sea and Nigeria, Newedge's Seta said, referring to a force majeure of Nigerian Bonny Light, production issues at the Forties and Ekofisk.
This has pushed up October Brent futures and widened its gap with November contract, keeping the market in wide backwardation, he said.
Brent's premium against U.S. crude widened to $25.62 a
barrel from Thursday's close. The premium hit a record $26.69 on
Aug. 19, according to Reuters data.
BP said on Wednesday that production at its Valhall platform, which pumps Ekofisk, would resume by mid-September, later than expected.
In Syria, looming European Union sanctions are unlikely to immediately impact oil supply from the producer as several tankers are sailing to the country this week to either deliver fuel or pick up crude.
European oil companies are betting on the survival of President Bashar al-Assad, in contrast to their support for Libya's opposition six months ago. (Editing by Himani Sarkar)