Oil rose for a second day after an industry group reported U.S. crude stockpiles dropped for the second week in a row and the dollar declined. Oil supplies fell by 3.13 million barrels to 370.7 million last week, the American Petroleum Institute said late yesterday. The U.S. Energy Department is due to post its report on crude inventory later today. “With more data out today, there is now a hope they will also show inventories are no longer increasing,” said Sintje Diek, an analyst at HSH Nordbank in Hamburg. “People are expecting that oil demand will be stronger again and everything will recover.” Crude oil for June delivery rose as much as $1.05, or 1.8 percent, to $59.90 a barrel and traded at $59.44 on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:10 a.m. in London. Yesterday, it climbed as much as 2.7 percent to $60.08 a barrel before closing at $58.85, the highest settlement since Nov. 11. Options for June-delivery Nymex crude contracts will expire tomorrow, and the majority of trading is centered on a strike price of $60 for options to buy and sell. The underlying June futures will expire on May 19. Oil has climbed 34 percent this year, tracking global equity markets on optimism that an economic recovery will spur demand for fuel. Additional support for crude prices came from the dollar, which fell to the lowest level against the euro since March, bolstering demand for commodities as a hedge against inflation. “The major play seems to be the weakening dollar,” said Mike Sander, an investment adviser at Sander Capital Advisors Inc. in Seattle. “If the dollar continues to weaken to $1.40 euro or worse, oil will be pressured to go higher.” Weaker Dollar The dollar fell to $1.3679 per euro at 10:20 a.m. in London from $1.3648 yesterday in New York. It earlier touched $1.3722, the weakest level since March 23. Refiners in China, the world’s second-biggest energy- consuming country, increased crude-oil processing volume by 6 percent last month, the China Mainland Marketing Research Co. said in a faxed statement today. Gasoline output in April gained 20 percent to 5.76 million tons, while diesel production rose 0.7 percent to 10.6 million tons, it added. The U.S. Energy Department report on inventories is expected to show a 1 million barrels gain, according to an analysts’ survey. Totals from the API and the government moved in the same direction 75 percent of the time over the past four years, Bloomberg data shows. Supplies rose to 375.3 million barrels in the week ended May 1, the highest since September 1990, the Energy Department said on May 6. Second Weekly Drop API collects stockpile information on a voluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals and pipelines. The government requires that reports be filed with the Energy Department for its weekly survey. Crude oil inventories fell by 1 million barrels for the week ending May 1, the API said May 5. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ monthly report on supply and demand for oil is due later today. Analysts are split over whether gasoline stockpiles rose or fell last week. Supplies of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, probably increased 1.25 million barrels, according to the Bloomberg News survey. The department is scheduled to release its weekly petroleum inventory report today at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. U.S. travel during the Memorial Day holiday will rise about 1.5 percent from last year as lower pump prices encourage vacationers, AAA, the nation’s biggest motoring organization, said yesterday. Gasoline Futures Gasoline futures for June delivery rose 2 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $1.6879 a gallon at 11 a.m. in London on the Nymex. The contract yesterday dropped 1.23 cents, or 0.7 percent, to settle at $1.6679 a gallon. Brent crude oil for June settlement gained as much as $1.11, or 1.9 percent, to $59.05 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. It was at $58.26 a barrel at 11:10 a.m. local time. It declined 0.8 percent to end the session at $57.94 a barrel yesterday.

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