Oil hovers near six-week low, awaits US stock rise

SINGAPORE, May 8 (Reuters) Oil prices hovered near their lowest in six weeks on Tuesday, after a six-day losing streak driven by growing hope that robust crude oil supplies will see the United States through the summer.

Benchmark London Brent crude currently seen more representative of the global market than U.S. prices, was up 18 cents at .62 a barrel by 0551 GMT, after Monday's 87-cent drop took six-day losses to nearly 6 percent or .

Brent fell below for the first time since March 26 on Monday, while U.S. light crude hit its lowest since March 22.

U.S. crude for June delivery was up 5 cents a barrel to .52 a barrel, with the front-month spread under mounting pressure from passive commodity index investors rolling long positions forward, traders have said.

Despite unseasonally low U.S. gasoline stocks and the start of the peak-demand driving season just weeks away, oil traders over the past week have focused on growing crude inventories and the promise of higher refinery output.

''There is increasing confidence that crude oil supplies will be sufficient to meet demand in the U.S. summer driving season,'' said Commonwealth Bank of Australia in a report.

Gasoline inventories were expected to have snapped a 12-week string of draws last week, rising by 100,000 barrels, a preliminary poll of Reuters analysts found. Crude stockpiles were also expected to have risen again.

Signs of recovering U.S. oil supplies have overshadowed bullish news out of Nigeria, where villagers with sticks and machetes forced Chevron Corp. to shut down an oil production site pumping 42,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The oil major said it expected a quick resolution, although some one-quarter of the country's output remains out of commission due to unrest and militant attacks that have lasted more than a year.

Some analysts have said oil's slide -- its longest losing run since early September, but not its steepest -- has been aided by soaring metals markets, which have captured investor attention and limited any bargain-hunt buying.

Tokyo platinum futures prices hit a record high on Tuesday while copper and zinc have also surged.

REUTERS SI DB1227