US gasoline demand strong ahead of summer driving season – Commerzbank

Yesterday's weekly US inventory report halted the slide on the oil market, Commerzbank's commodity analyst Barbara Lambrecht notes.

US crude stocks drop, gap to 5-year average widens

"US crude oil inventories fell surprisingly sharply, and the gap to the five-year average widened again to 6%. However, the most notable development was the significant increase in US gasoline demand to almost 9.5 million barrels per day, a good 800,000 barrels more than in the previous week."

"The fact that demand rose so sharply even before the start of the summer driving season, which began last weekend with Memorial Day, is also attributable to the method of recording, which is based on how much gasoline is delivered from US refineries to petrol stations."

"Petrol station operators were obviously very optimistic. After all, the US Automobile Association (AAA) had also predicted a new travel record for the Memorial Day weekend."