Oil slipped below $75 today but remained within sight of an all-time high ahead of US data expected to show a further tightening of crude stocks in the world's top consumer.
US crude fell 27 cents to $74.81 a barrel by 1334 GMT, off highs of $75.38, while London Brent crude fell 5 cents to $73.87.
Crude inventories in the world's top consumer were expected to decline by 400,000 barrels after bad weather interfered with imports. Gasoline stocks were seen down by 1.5 million barrels, a Reuters poll showed prior to tomorrow's release of weekly US data.
"An elevated number of refinery outages have continued to plague the market and with demand staying solid, inventories have fallen to critically low levels," said a Barclays Capital report.
"We expect gasoline prices to remain firm in the coming weeks, with some upside risk if inventory levels continue to move lower."