NEW YORK – Fluctuating oil and gasoline prices have analysts concerned about the government report on oil and gasoline inventories that is to be released later today, the Associated Press reports. Light, sweet crude oil for delivery next month reached $65.74 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. June delivery of gasoline rose 1.97 cents to reach $2.2791 a gallon on the Nymex.

On Monday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the weekly price of a gallon of gasoline jumped more than 10 cents per gallon to reach $2.971. Prices have risen almost 80 cents since the first week in February, when NACS released its annual gasoline price kit in anticipation of the seasonal transition.

Traders worry that today's inventory report will show a hike in crude oil stockpiles and a drop in gasoline supplies once again. Coupled with several refinery accidents and outages, analysts are fearful that the summer driving season may be affected by the lower inventories.

"Until we start to see refineries come back from the maintenance season ... the market's going to continue to be led by gasoline," Erit Wittenauer, an energy futures analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis, told the newswire. "There's a fear built into the market that there won't be enough gasoline for the summer driving season."