Crude-oil futures rose for a second session on Wednesday, rising to above $40 a barrel on speculations that U.S. gasoline and heating oil inventories fell last week. Crude for April delivery rose 85 cents, or 2%, to $40.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. "Crude-oil futures still remain in a broad price range," said Brenda Sullivan, analyst at Sucden Financial Research.. "Inventories data from the EIA report are likely to be the next important fundamental input," she said. The Energy Information Administration will release closely watched data on U.S. petroleum supplies at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Analysts surveyed by Platts expect a decline of 300,000 barrels in gasoline stocks in the week ended Feb. 20 as well as a drop of 1.8 million barrels in distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel. The same analysts also expected an increase in the government's reading for crude inventories of 2.25 million barrels. Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase of 341,000 barrels in U.S. crude-oil stockpiles as well as a rise of 1.76 million barrels in distillate supplies and a decline of 898,000 barrels for motor gasoline. The Washington-based API, a trade association of the oil and natural gas industry, calculates inventories based on criteria different from what the government uses. "For oil prices to stage a lasting recovery, the market needs confirmation that commercial inventories will start shrinking in response to OPEC's production cuts," said commodity analysts at Commerzbank in a research note. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has agreed to cut cartel members' daily production quotas by a combined 4.2 million barrels since September, equivalent to about 5% of global oil demand. In recent weeks, there have been indications that the cartel may decide to cut output further at its upcoming meeting on March 15 in Vienna. On Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama said in his first address before a joint session of Congress that the United States will emerge from the recession "stronger than before," outlining the challenges facing the U.S. economy and detailing proposals to turn it around. In a lengthy speech, an animated but serious-looking Obama rolled out more of his economic agenda, promising job creation, a doubling of renewable-energy production, health-care reform and a bolstering of education. See full story. Also on Globex, March reformulated gasoline gained 1 cent to $1.10 a gallon, while March heating oil was flat at $1.20 a gallon. Both contracts will expire at the end of trading on Feb. 27. March natural gas futures fell 2 cents to $4.21 per million British thermal units. The EIA will report data on natural-gas supplies at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Thursday. IHS Global Insight is projecting a storage withdrawal of 145 billion cubic feet for the week ended Feb. 20.

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