Oil steady, traders braced for US gasoline draw

SINGAPORE, Apr 25 (Reuters) Oil prices were steady on Wednesday after profit-taking knocked them lower a day ago, with traders awaiting U.S. data that is expected to show an 11th consecutive weekly fall in gasoline stocks.

London Brent crude, for the moment seen as a more accurate reflection of world oil prices than U.S. crude, rose 15 cents to .31 at 0225 GMT after a 99-cent drop the day before. U.S. crude edged up 1 cent to .59.

Dwindling U.S. gasoline stocks and healthy demand growth have inflamed concerns ahead of the summer driving season.

''Refineries are ramping up ... but the feeling is they are not going to keep up with demand,'' said Mark Waggoner, president of Excel Futures in Huntington Beach, California.

Gasoline stocks in the world's biggest consumer are expected to have slipped by 0.4 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll of industry analysts, deepening a 13-percent slide in stock levels since early February amid refinery outages. S] ''It's all about demand, demand, demand, and we haven't even got into the peak summer driving season yet,'' Waggoner said.

Crude oil inventories were expected to have fallen by 1 million barrels while distillate stocks rose by 0.4 million as some big refineries returned to service, the poll found.

Oil prices initially surged this week after Nigeria's ruling party candidate Umaru Yar' Adua was declared the winner of a weekend presidential poll that observers and opposition groups said was manipulated, fanning fears of more disruptive violence.

Nigeria has lost 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) in oil production since the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) attacked oilfields in the western delta in February 2006, although Nigerian officials say that fields pumping more than half that will be restarted by the end of May.

Fighting for a share of the more than hundreds of billions of dollars generated from the Niger oil delta region in the past five years, the rebels see themselves as advocates for the more than 10 million people who live in abject poverty.

REUTERS PV PM1155