Oil prices above $82 a barrel

New York’’s light sweet crude for April delivery, added nine cents to $82.20 a barrel while London’’s Brent North Sea crude for April was up nine cents to $80.37.

Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore said that there is a general consensus that the global economy is growing.

He said that the market participants are optimistic at this point based on economic recovery optimism.

They are thinking ahead about the summer driving season raising gasoline demand in the US.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy’’s (DoE) weekly oil inventory report Wednesday showed a surprise drop in gasoline stockpiles.

It is a key factor behind the large supply backlog, indicating strengthening demand.

Gasoline stockpiles tumbled 2.9 million barrels in the week to March 5, surprising the market as most analysts had expected an increase of about 100,000 barrels.

The DoE also said distillates were down 2.2 million barrels, far more than predictions of a 700,000-barrel drop.

On the other hand, US crude oil inventories meanwhile climbed 1.4 million barrels, which undershot analysts” consensus forecast for a 1.7-million-barrel gain.