Traders expect government energy data to show that gasoline supplies increased last week, a trend that could help push pump prices lower.
The Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, will release its weekly report on petroleum supplies at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
That report is expected to show gasoline inventories rose by an average of 2 million barrels last week, boosted by rising refinery output and higher imports, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of energy analysts.
The agency reported last week that U.S. gasoline stockpiles increased by 3.5 million barrels to 201.5 million barrels. Inventories of the motor fuel were still 6 percent below year-ago levels.
Gasoline supplies have been unusually tight this year, due to unplanned outages and scheduled maintenance at refineries, sluggish imports and strong demand. Gasoline stockpiles declined for 12 straight weeks earlier this year before rebounding in May.
Tuesday saw yet another report of a refinery glitch, this time at a Citgo Petroleum Corp. facility near Corpus Christi, Texas.
But gas prices have moderated recently as refineries have come back on line and started producing more fuel.
As long as the Energy Department keeps reporting higher gasoline inventory levels, scattered reports of refinery outages won't have the same impact they had a month or so ago, analysts say.
At the pump, gasoline prices have retreated from late May's record of $3.28 a gallon. The average national price of a gallon of gas fell 1.5 cents overnight to $3.07 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell 62 cents to settle at $65.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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