Oil prices were mixed on Thursday, with the benchmark U.S. crude contract pressured below $75 a barrel by record stockpiles in the U.S. Midwest, while London-Brent crude held above $81 a barrel, Reuters reported. The two-main benchmark contracts have diverged significantly over the past week. Rising global energy demand and hopes Europe's debt crisis can be tackled has seen Brent rise for three of the last four sessions, while U.S. crude prices have been falling since Tuesday. Stockpiles of crude at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery hub for the U.S. contract, have risen for the last eight weeks to stand at a record 37 million barrels, pushing U.S. crude to its steepest discount to Brent since the peak of the economic crisis. At 0904 GMT on Thursday, U.S. crude oil for delivery in June was trading down 77 cents at $74.48 a barrel, while Brent was trading down 10 cents at $81.20 a barrel. "In general, Brent is acting as a much better benchmark for global fundamentals at the moment," Barclays Capital analyst Amrita Sen said. "Demand is rising, but the supply situation at Cushing is distorting the U.S. contract at the moment." The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said gasoline demand in the United States, which accounts for more than one in ten barrels of global consumption, is up by 2.7 percent on the same four week period last year. Gasoline inventories in the United States declined by 2.8 million barrels last week, the EIA said on Wednesday, though total U.S. crude inventories were up by 1.9 million barrels. The U.S. crude contract for delivery in July is trading almost trading $5 above the current contract, with the premium between the two touching its highest level since February 2009. -- SPA
