By Devika Krishna Kumar
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil futures were little changed in choppy trading on Wednesday as data showed that demand for gasoline jumped in the United States last week, offseting the impact of a much larger-than-expected build in crude inventories.
The figures came as the market braced for the outcome of a producer meeting set for Sunday in Doha to discuss freezing output, widely expected to do little to trim oversupply.
U.S. crude inventories rose 6.6 million barrels last week to 536.53 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, compared with analyst expectations for a 1.9 million-barrel rise.
A larger-than-expected draw in gasoline inventories and falling U.S. crude production, however, softened the blow of soaring crude stocks. Gasoline fell by 4.2 million barrels to 239.76 million, compared with an analyst forecast for a 1.4 million-barrel draw.
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"There's this gasoline demand, and it's otherworldly. I can't begin to describe it any other way," said Carl Larry, director of business development for oil and gas at Frost & Sullivan.
"Without a doubt, we're going to see record gas demand in the U.S. this year, and that might even hit 10M b/d."
Brent crude was down 9 cents at $44.60 per barrel by 12:08 a.m. EDT (1608 GMT), while U.S. crude fell 3 cents to $42.14.
"Ultimately, the downside based upon inventory figures is limited because of two factors: the strong gasoline demand and falling U.S. crude production," said Anthony Headrick, energy market analyst at CHS Hedging.
Prices were under pressure earlier in the session, falling more than 2 percent after comments by Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi in the al-Hayat newspaper in which he confirmed his country's position that an outright production cut was out of the question.
"Forget about this topic," al-Naimi told the newspaper when asked about any possible reduction in his country's crude output.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh does not plan to attend the Doha meeting, but Iran will send a representative, an Iranian journalist from the Seda weekly wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
Iran has said it does not plan to participate in the freeze agreement as it seeks to boost its production in the post-sanctions era.
Morgan Stanley analysts said the market may still be underestimating the potential near-term headline upside risk of the Sunday meeting.
But others remained skeptical. "We have muted expectations for any meaningful impact on crude fundamentals from the April 17th Doha meeting," Macquarie Capital analysts wrote in a note.
"We do not believe that anyone is going to cut production to get back into compliance with January levels."
(Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Keith Wallis and Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Jason Neely, David Evans and Jonathan Oatis)
