* Yemen opposition calls for protest
* Rocket from Gaza strikes deep in Israel
* U.S. gasoline stocks fall sharply - EIA
* Coming up: U.S. jobless claims data on Thursday
(Recasts, updates prices and market activity, changes byline
and moves dateline from previous LONDON)
By Robert Gibbons
NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - Oil rose on Wednesday as
unrest in the Middle East and North Africa continued to flare
and as a report showed U.S. gasoline inventories fell more than
expected.
Resilient gasoline demand in the face of strong and rising
retail prices and falling stockpiles helped provide more lift
for U.S. crude prices, while Brent initially wavered.
Analysts and brokers expect Brent's premium to its U.S.
counterpart to ease as U.S. refiners seek light sweet crude
barrels to boost gasoline output with the U.S. summer driving
season approaching.
Prices were supported early as unrest in Saudi Arabia's
neighboring Yemen and also in Syria kept worries about the
potential for oil supply from the region being disrupted in
focus.
Investors also eyed more violence in the Middle East after
Palestinian rockets struck two cities deep in Israel and the
ongoing fighting in OPEC-member Libya.
Brent crude futures for May delivery <LCOc1> rose 35 cents
to $116.05 a barrel by 12:54 p.m. EDT (1654 GMT), trading in a
range from $115.08 to $116.40.
U.S. crude futures for May delivery <CLc1> rose $1.14 to
$106.11 a barrel, just off its high of $106.34.
Total U.S. crude trading volume was just above 310,000
lots, 64 percent below the 30-day average near 900,000.
Crude trading volumes have been curbed by volatility and
uncertainty about unrest and revolts in the Middle East and
North Africa and Japan's earthquake-ravaged economy.
Brent's premium to <CL-LCO1=R> WTI was $1.04 lower at $9.90
a barrel, well off its March 1 record premium of $17.12.
U.S. government data showed a 5.32 million barrel drop in
gasoline inventories in the week to March 18, surpassing an
analyst forecast of a 1.8 million barrel drop. []
The gasoline stocks drop came even with refiners boosting
utilization rates by 0.7 percentage point, though the capacity
use boost did not prevent a crude stocks rise that was more
than expected and distillate stocks also posting a gain.
The gasoline stocks fall in the first three weeks in March
was the biggest decline for the period since 1990, when the
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) started its weekly
inventory report. []
Gasoline demand over the past four weeks was 1.2 percent
higher than a year earlier, the EIA said.
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Graphic showing record March U.S. gasoline drawdowns:
http://r.reuters.com/fys68r
Reuters Insider: Christopher Henwood on EIA data:
http://link.reuters.com/zys68r
More on Middle East unrest: [] []
Libya graphics http://link.reuters.com/neg68r
Oil technicals []
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(Additional reporting by Ikuko Kurahone in London and
Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
