LONDON, June 22: World oil prices advanced further on Thursday as the market focused on tight supplies of US gasoline, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, climbed 27 cents to $70.60 per barrel in pit trading. In London, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery rose 57 cents to $69.74 per barrel in electronic trading.“Oil futures were higher, continuing Wednesday’s gains on a smaller than expected rise in US gasoline stocks,” Sucden analyst Sam Tilley said.

US official figures released on Wednesday showed US crude oil reserves rose by 1.4 million barrels to 347.1 million last week, much stronger than the rise of 500,000 expected and taking inventories to their highest level since late May 1998.

However gasoline, or petrol, stocks rose 300,000 barrels to 213.4 million, well below the 1.5 million barrels gain expected.

The “rise in gasoline stocks was not deemed enough by the market considering that demand in the US is currently at its highest at this time of year as a result of the summer driving season,” Tilley said. Gasoline numbers are under scrutiny as drivers in the United States begin taking to the roads en masse for their summer holidays.

“We are not even in the top season of gasoline demand. July-August should be a more important period where we will see prices going up,” said Tetsu Emori, a Tokyo-based commodities strategist with Mitsui Bussan Futures.

—AFP