Oil in Asia drifts above $30 per barrel

Oil in Asia drifts above $30 per barrel

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Crude oil in Asia rose above US$30 per barrel in Asia on Thursday, as low stocks in the United States exacerbated supply shortage worries ahead of the nation's peak summer season.

July New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude futures traded at $30.01 per barrel, up eight cents from its New York close by 0725 GMT.

The rise extended a price surge during the New York session, where July crude settled four percent, or $1.15 per barrel stronger at $29.93, amid concerns of tight supplies of summer gasoline grade.

Latest data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) released on Tuesday showed weekly stocks of reformulated gasoline down by 1.9 million barrels.

Ahead of the launch of ultra-clean phase two reformulated gasoline (RFG 2) on June 1 for around a third of U.S. motorists, the data perpetuated supply worries which had pushed U.S. retail gasoline prices towards their highest levels on record.

The head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration insisted on Wednesday U.S. reformulated gasoline inventories were in good shape, but that failed to cool the heated market.

API had also reported a fall of 1.3 million barrels in weekly crude stocks, adding pressure to a tightly-supplied market.