New York — Oil prices held onto gains Thursday after an unexpected draw in US gasoline inventories pointed to higher demand in the world’s biggest oil market, although bloated crude supplies meant that fuel markets remain under pressure. Benchmark Brent crude was up 35c a barrel at $55.47 per barrel by 4.30pm GMT. US light crude was 55c higher at $52.89 a barrel. "I think the market is frozen," said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute. He said that while the US gasoline stock draw was interesting, it was insufficient to knock the market out of its range-bound trade, limited between production cuts from Opec and brimming US crude stockpiles. "If we continue to see a decent compliance level in the 85 to 95% range from Opec and we do see inventories cleaning up in the US we may get another leg up," Chirichella said. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday gasoline inventories fell by 869,000 barrels last week to 256.2-million...
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