Oil up 3 pct in broad rally ahead of forecast stocks drop

By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices jumped 3 percent or more on Tuesday, and gasoline and diesel rose as much, as bulls ramped up bets across the oil complex for another weekly drop in U.S. stockpiles.

U.S. crude inventories likely fell for a sixth straight week in the week ended June 5, data from industry group American Petroleum Institute is expected to show later on Tuesday before official numbers on Wednesday from the government's Energy Information Administration.

A Reuters poll of five analysts forecast on average that crude stocks fell 1.7 million barrels last week. [EIA/S]

Brent futures were up $2, or 3.2 percent, at $64.69 a barrel by 11:25 a.m. EDT (1525 GMT). That was the largest advance on the day for Brent since May 29.

U.S. crude futures rose by $1.80 to $59.94.

Among refined products, gasoline rose about 3 percent while ultra low sulphur diesel, also known as heating oil, gained almost 4 percent.

"It's an across-the-board run as we wait for the inventory data," said Phil Thompson at Mobius Risk Group, an energy investment advisory in Houston.

Still, some appeared surprised by the strength of the rally, which came on the back of a firmer dollar, which is normally bearish for greenback-denominated commodities such as oil.

A few attributed it to expectations that demand for gasoline and diesel will pick up this month from the start of the peak season for road travel in the United States.

Even so, the Reuters poll forecast that stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 1.2 million barrels last week. Gasoline inventories were estimated to have risen by 500,000 barrels.

Thompson at Mobius cited confidence in the high rate of refinery runs of late, which he said was another indication of energy demand.

"The refineries are running as close as they can manage to capacity, and that's really been driving the strength in refined products," he said.

Refinery utilization rates for crude oil were expected to have risen 0.5 percentage point last week to reach 93.7 percent, according to the Reuters poll.

On the global supply front, Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday the rise in its oil output to record highs over the past three months was due to higher global demand and customer needs, and was not a measure to compensate for lower prices.

(Additional reporting by Simon Falush in London and Meeyoung Cho in Seoul; Editing by Susan Fenton and Chris Reese)