NEW YORK (AP) - Oil prices climbed near $62 a barrel Wednesday ahead of a government report that was expected to show a drop in U.S. oil supplies for the second straight week. Benchmark crude for July delivery climbed $1.57 to $61.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent prices rose $1.06 to $59.98 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration was set to release its weekly petroleum inventory report later in the day. Analysts expect crude and gasoline in storage to decline, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. If or how much supplies fall could ripple across energy markets and to the corner gas station eventually. «If you mix that with fires at refineries this week, and the optimism that's in the equities markets right now, you have the ingredients for a rally» in crude oil, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service. Still, oil supplies likely will remain at 19-year highs as Americans cut back on spending. For weeks, government data has shown that the country's consumption of petroleum products has dropped to its lowest level in a decade. At the pump, U.S. gas prices added two cents overnight to a new national average of over $2.334 a gallon (62 cents a liter) Wednesday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas is 27.6 cents a gallon more expensive than a month ago, but it's $1.466 a gallon cheaper than last year. Kloza said he expects gas prices to continue to climb near $2.40 just before Memorial Day weekend as a drop in refinery activities forces pump prices higher. In other Nymex trading, gasoline for June delivery rose 3.94 cents to $1.8519 a gallon and heating oil up 3.36 cents to $1.5202 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery added 5.1 cents at $3.965 per 1,000 cubic feet. Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

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