oil futures climbed on wednesday as traders weighed the outlook for crude demand as well as a second straight weekly rise in us crude supplies recent economic data from china came in weaker than the market expected but the international energy agency on tuesday lifted its global oil demand growth forecast the energy information administration on wednesday reported that us commercial crude inventories rose by 5 million barrels for the week ended may 12 that compared to an increase of 25 million barrels forecast by robert yawger director of energy futures at mizuho securities usa though analysts surveyed by the wall street journal on average looked for crude inventories to show a fall of 800000 barrels on tuesday the american petroleum institute reported a 37 million barrel rise according to a source citing the data the eia report showed a weekly inventory decline of 14 million barrels for gasoline while distillate stockpiles edged up by 100000 barrels yawger had forecast weekly declines of 2 million barrels each for gasoline and distillates also seeheres what might lead to a spike in gasoline prices this summer crude stocks at the cushing okla nymex delivery hub climbed by 15 million barrels for the week the eia said while stocks in the strategic petroleum reserve fell by 24 million barrels crude fell tuesday after disappointment in economic data out of china demand concerns have plagued crude with both wti and brent suffering four straight weekly declines oil prices have been logjammed between fundamentally oversold territory and lacking acute catalysts to shock prices materially higher over the near term said michael tran commodity and digital intelligence strategist at rbc capital markets in a note realtime physical indicators remain mixed at best he said the market always expected sloppy q1 balances but halfway through the second quarter and the physical market is not tracking meaningfully better yet he wrote many market hopes hinged on chinas reopening as being a binary market moving event but even that framework has been mixedand peak turnarounds are more than a month away still the parisbased iea in its monthly report released tuesday said chinas demand for oil is growing at a fasterthanexpected pace the growing demand threatens to tighten crude markets and send oil prices higher as supply struggles to keep up the report said it lifted its forecast for global oil demand growth this year by 200000 barrels a day to 22 million barrels a day stephen innes managing partner at spi asset management said he wasnt surprised that oil prices were moving higher after the ieas solid demand growth view and amid the biden administrations plans to repurchase up to 3 million barrels of crude oil for the spr this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal