By Nick Trevethan SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures were steady just above $81 a barrel on Friday, as the market settled into its new trading range and worked off overbought technicals. Oil was expected to trade around $80 in the near term, tracking changes in the dollar as the market's oversold relative strength indicator, currently at 73 but off recent highs above 80, became more neutral. "We think the market is transitioning to a higher range But we don't think an explosive move will be sustained," Barclays Capital analyst Yingxi Yu said. "We have broken the $65-$75 range seen in most of the third quarter and we now see prices consolidating." NYMEX crude for December delivery fell 4 cents to $81.15 a barrel by 0210 GMT, after settling down 18 cents on Thursday. London Brent crude rose 13 cents to $79.64 a barrel. Crude is heading for a gain of more than 3 percent this week, its fourth in as many weeks. Focus remains on the dollar, which earlier on Friday dipped below 75 against a basket of currencies .DXY. But the greenback later pared losses to 75.082, more or less steady from Thursday. In the longer term the market is seen pushing higher, with some suggesting crude will trade in treble digits for the first time since the start of October 2008. "We feel confident that any dips back to S75 can be looked at as a buying opportunity," said Jonathan Barratt managing director of Commodity Broking Services, He said technical indicators suggested the market needed a couple of weeks of consolidation, but could eventually rally toward $102 with a successful break of resistance. That could prompt OPEC to raise oil output in December if prices top $100 in coming months, a source close to OPEC president Angola said.

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