* U.S. crude stocks up 2.4 mln bbls, gasoline down 0.2 mln
* Crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma off 300,000 barrels
* Kuwait oil min says oil at $65 will draw OPEC attention
* For a technical view, click: []
* TAKE A LOOK at the Reuters Energy Summit: []
(Updates prices, details)
By David Sheppard
LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Oil rose by almost 4 percent on
Wednesday to above $71 a barrel as signs of a strong recovery in
U.S. demand and a bounce in equity markets overshadowed rising
crude stocks and lingering concerns about the euro zone economy.
By 1519 GMT, U.S. crude oil was up $2.38 a barrel at $71.13
a barrel, while Brent crude was up $2.00 at $71.55 a barrel.
U.S. crude has rebounded by more than $4 since its low near $67
a barrel on Tuesday.
Over the last four weeks, demand for oil products in the
United States, the world's largest energy consumer, has been
almost 7 percent higher than the same period last year, the
Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Despite rising demand, total crude oil inventories continue
to mount, rising 2.4 million barrels last week, though they
eased slightly at Cushing, Oklahoma, the closely watched
delivery hub for the NYMEX crude contract.
Gasoline stocks fell by 200,000 barrels, as predicted by the
market, while distillate stocks, including diesel and heating
oil, posted a surprise fall of 300,000 barrels.
"Overall (it is) a slightly bearish number, but right now
everyone is so relieved that we had the recovery in the equity
markets yesterday and spilling over into today, that oil is near
its highs here," said Mike Zarembski, senior commodities analyst
at optionsXpress in Chicago.
Bargain hunting lifted equity markets on Wednesday, with
European shares recovering from Tuesday's nine-month low.
However the euro fell against the dollar for a third
straight day, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
urged European leaders to find a unified approach to the
region's deepening debt crisis.
The European debt crisis has seen oil prices fall sharply
since hitting a 19-month high above $87 a barrel at the start of
May, but some analysts said the market now looks oversold,
having shed almost $20 in just three weeks.
"The concerns that European economies are at risk of a
double dip appear to have receded, some of the selling appears
to have been exhausted, and positive economic indicators are in
the ascendant in relation to apparent deleveraging of risk by
financial markets," JP Morgan analyst Lawrence Eagles said.
New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose by
more than expected in April, boosted by booking for expensive
aircraft, government data showed on Wednesday, but were down
excluding transportation for the first time in three months.
[]
Jean-Jaques Mosconi, head of strategy at French oil major
Total <TOTF.PA>, told Reuters Energy Summit prices were unlikely
to fall far below $70 a barrel as global demand was increasing.
"Europe is the big issue here. China is doing well, India is
growing, the Middle East is growing. Even the U.S. is
recovering," Mosconi said.
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Click the link below for Mosconi interview with Reuters Insider
http://link.reuters.com/zug36k
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Prices were also boosted on Wednesday after Kuwait's Oil
Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al Sabah said the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would take notice if
oil fell to $65 a barrel.
Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation,
told the Reuters Global Energy Summit OPEC members are talking
informally about the drop in oil prices, and are urging each
other to comply more closely with agreed supply targets.
[]
(For more news from the Reuters Global Energy Summit, click
on http://www.reuters.com/summit/GlobalEnergy10?pid=500)
(Additional reporting by the New York Energy Desk and Alejandro
Barbajosa in Singapore; editing by Amanda Cooper)
