* Cushing stockpiles climb for eighth straight week -EIA
* Brent premium over WTI tops $6 first time in 15 months
* Coming Up: U.S. weekly jobless claims; 1230 GMT
* For a technical view on oil prices, click: []
(Updates prices, details)
By David Sheppard
LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - 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.
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 have seen Brent rise for
four straight days, 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 1022 GMT on Thursday, U.S. crude <CLc1> oil for delivery
in June was trading down 71 cents at $74.94 a barrel, while
Brent was trading up 1 cent at $81.21 a barrel.
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"In general, Brent is acting as a much better benchmark for
global fundamentals at the moment," Barclays Capital analyst
Amrita Sen said.
Cushing's landlocked location means it tends to only reflect
the supply and demand situation in the midwestern United States,
analysts said.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said total
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.
Prices were supported by firm equity markets in Europe,
which rose for the second straight day early in the session
after Spain outlined measures to reduce its deficit, including
pay and job cuts in the public sector. [] []
The euro zone debt crisis roiled energy markets last week,
knocking U.S. crude from a 19-month peak of $87.15 on May 3 to a
three-month low of $74.51 just four days later.
"It's mid-term expectations that have kept prices in a range
between $75 and $85," said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity
derivatives manager at brokerage Newedge in Japan.
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.
Weekly U.S. jobless claims data, out at 1230 GMT, could
give the next clue to the pace of the economic recovery,
analysts said.
(Additional reporting by Alejandro Barbajosa in Singapore;
editing by Keiron Henderson)
