West Texas Intermediate crude traded near the lowest price in almost three weeks before stockpile data that may signal the strength of fuel demand in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent was steady in London.

Futures were little changed in New York after declining 3 cents yesterday. U.S. crude inventories probably fell last week while gasoline supplies rose, according to a Bloomberg News survey before data from the Energy Information Administration today. The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed off Florida. Fighting in Iraq hasn’t spread to the south, home to more than three-quarters of its oil production.

“Markets are watching to see what’s happening in the U.S. now that we’re in drive-time,” David Lennox, a resource analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney, said of the nation’s peak gasoline demand season in the summer. “The southern part of Iraq at this point has been free from fighting.”

WTI for August delivery was at $105.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 6 cents, at 3:06 p.m. Seoul time. The contract slid to $105.34 yesterday, the lowest close since June 11. The volume of all futures traded was about 52 percent below the 100-day average. Prices have gained 7.1 percent this year.