oil futures traded higher tuesday led by gains for gasoline ahead of the start of the us summer driving season at the end of the month traders also noted remarks by saudi arabia’s energy minister who warned short sellers that pain may lie ahead as ministers from opec made up of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and its allies prepared to meet in june   west texas intermediate crude for july delivery cl1 cl00 cln23 rose 67 cents or 09 to 7272 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange   july brent crude brn00 brnn23 the global benchmark gained 72 cents or 09 to trade at 7671 a barrel on ice futures europe   back on nymex june gasoline rbm23 jumped 13 to 2685 a gallon while june heating oil hom23 was up 05 at 2378 a gallon   june natural gas ngm23 declined 1 to 2375 per million british thermal units after kicking off the week with a 7 tumble on monday analysts said optimism over a pickup in demand for gasoline ahead of the us memorial day holiday weekend was contributing to support see here’s what might lead to a spike in gasoline prices this summer gasoline rallied monday as speculators looked for a demand boost as the memorial day holiday approaches said robert yawger executive director for energy futures at mizuho in a note us gasoline storage of 2183 million barrels as reported by the energy information administration is 126 million below the nineyear low of 2057 million barrels from nov 4 2022 “implying to me that a storage situation will likely develop at some point in the relatively near term future” he said in a note the july gasoline crack spread was up 325 versus 3429 and traded to a july contract high of 3433 earlier in the session he wrote the crack spread is the difference between the price of a barrel of crude and the products that can be refined from it meanwhile speaking at an economic forum in doha saudi energy minister prince abdulaziz bin salman on tuesday warned short sellers could face another round of pain “speculators like in any market they are there to stay i keep advising them that they will be ouching they did ouch in april i don’t have to show my cards i’m not a poker player…but i would just tell them to watch out” he said according to reuters saudi arabia and its opec allies unexpectedly announced more than 1 million barrels in additional cuts in early april sparking a spike higher in crude prices though gains were washed away by the end of the month the cuts took effect at the beginning of may a meeting of opec ministers is expected june 4 in vienna