* IEA raises 2009 demand forecast, first rise in 10 months
* U.S. May retail sales rise 0.5 percent
* U.S. weekly jobless claims fall to lowest since January
* China May crude imports at second highest ever
(Releads, updates prices in paragraph 4, adds Aruba refinery
shutdown in paragraph 7)
By Richard Valdmanis
NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - Oil prices extended a
three-day rally to over $73 a barrel on Thursday on hopes for a
recovery in world energy demand and worries refinery shutdowns
could tighten gasoline supplies heading into the U.S. summer
driving season.
The International Energy Agency said it revised its outlook
for global oil demand higher for the first time since August,
two days after the U.S. government's energy forecaster did the
same. []
"These revisions do not necessarily imply the beginnings of
a global economic recovery, and may only signal the bottoming
out of the recession," the adviser to 28 industrialized nations
said in its report.
U.S. crude <CLc1> rose $1.90 to $73.23 a barrel by 1:30
p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) after the report, the highest price since
Oct. 21. London Brent crude <LCOc1> gained $1.42 to $72.22.
Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix, said the markets
were now in a phase of identifying signs of economic recovery
and that the IEA report "will likely be taken as an additional
green shoot."
Meanwhile, U.S. data showing an increase in retail sales in
May and a slowdown in weekly jobless claims reinforced
perceptions that deterioration of the world's top economy was
easing - pushing up stocks on Wall Street.[]
Earlier in the day, data from China showed oil imports into
the world's second biggest energy user rose 5.5 percent in May
compared to the previous year, hitting to the second-highest
volume on record. []
REFINERY OUTAGES
Oil dealers said news that Valero <VLO.N> will shut its
refinery on the Caribbean island of Aruba that exports gasoline
to the United States because of weak profit margins, encouraged
oil's rally by intensifying concern fuel supplies could tighten
when Americans hit the roads this summer. []
The U.S. has also been hit by a spate of unplanned refinery
outages in recent weeks, including fires at Sunoco's <SUN.N>
plant in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and Flint Hills' plant in
Corpus Christi, Texas.
Oil prices have risen about 7 percent in three days and
have more than doubled since the depths near $30 plumbed this
winter, aided in part by worries OPEC production curbs would
dig into world stockpiles as the economy recovers.
OPEC members have agreed to cut 4.2 million barrels per day
of output since last autumn in an attempt to counter sliding
prices and soft world demand.
Venezuela's oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, said the group
should not consider increasing production until world oil
stockpiles are reduced.[]
U.S. crude stocks fell by a sharp 4.4 million barrels last
week due to sliding imports, but they remain about 19 percent
higher than a year ago, the Energy Information Administration
(EIA) reported on Wednesday. []
(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler and Joe Brock in London,
Pascal Fletcher in St. Kitts; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
