UPDATE 3-Oil dips below $111 as China data fails to support

* China Jan-Feb exports beat forecasts, crude imports down

* Brent pipeline system restart weighs on benchmark

* Coming Up: U.S. non-farm payrolls at 1330 GMT

(Recasts, adds quotes, updates prices, previous SINGAPORE)

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Brent crude oil futures dipped below $111 a barrel on Friday, failing to react to better-than-expected Chinese export data, and pressured by returning supply in the North Sea.

Brent futures were down 57 cents to $110.58 per barrel at 1023 GMT. The contract has eased some 7 percent from this year's high of $119.17 after speculative length came out of the market in the second half of February.

U.S. oil was down 5 cents to $91.51, after ending more than a $1 higher in the previous session on an unexpected drop in U.S. unemployment benefits.

Analysts said Brent oil prices were consolidating after coming off hard in the second half of February. "We have spent a week forming a base after the sell off," said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

"We have realigned ourselves with the fundamentals around $110 and are in a range of $109-$113 a barrel at the moment. And until we see a new catalyst that's where we'll be stuck."

The oil market failed to find support from relatively positive Chinese data, with exports for January and February up 23.6 percent, beating expectations for a rise of 17.6 percent.

Analysts look at the combined figures because of distortions caused by the Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in January in 2012 and in February this year.

"There are probably still a few concerns brewing with regard to China," Hansen suggested.

China's February crude oil imports fell nearly 9 percent from a year earlier, but 2012 set a very high base level with imports hitting 5.95 million bpd, the second highest on record.

"The market is not trading on this data," said Carsten Fritsch, an energy analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "The crude oil imports figure is actually the strongest part of the commodity complex. Imports of copper and soybeans plunged."

He noted that commodity prices appear to have decoupled from equity markets which are setting fresh highs. Investors have been pulling money from commodity futures and exchange traded products after a run of disappointing price performance.

"The easy money is going into stocks, and commodities are not getting any traction," Saxo Bank's Hansen said.

Oil prices rose in the first three weeks of the year on expectations of buoyant global economic growth but have given up gains due to concerns that central banks would curtail their policy easing measures.

Fritsch said that the oil market now appeared to be stalling, having been flat all week. "It's a very disappointing development for the bulls in the market."

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China trade data: http://link.reuters.com/fut96s

China crude, oil prices: http://link.reuters.com/cym56t

US jobless claims: http://link.reuters.com/xew34t

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WEIGHING ON PRICES

Returning supply capped any upside for Brent prices as the Brent oil pipeline system in the North Sea, which forms part of the global benchmark, began a restart after its second shutdown in almost two months.

The 80,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) system was shut on Saturday after more oil was found to have leaked into a leg of the 10,000 bpd Cormorant Alpha platform, which has remained offline since mid-January.

Positive growth data from the United States is failing to lift Brent prices as the U.S. is drawing on ample domestic supplies. Analysts said they would be surprised if a strong U.S. non-farm payrolls figure, due later on Friday, boosted the oil market.

"The trading pattern of the last few weeks has been that good numbers have been ignored and soft numbers have caused price to drop," said Commerzbank's Fritsch.

U.S. non-farm payroll numbers are a key factor in determining the Federal Reserve's policy on quantitative easing. According to a Reuters poll, U.S. jobs may have increased moderately by 160,000 in February, slightly up from January's 157,000.

(Additional reporting by Ramya Venugopal and Manash Goswami in Singapore, editing by William Hardy)