Oil prices eased on Tuesday as the market awaited U.S. inventory data expected to show fuel inventories had grown for the tenth week in a row. U.S. light sweet crude for September delivery fell 25 cents to $58.75 a barrel, while London Brent crude shed 23 cents to $57.63. Prices hit a record of $62.10 for U.S. crude on July 7, but have since come under pressure from swelling stocks and downward revisions to oil demand forecasts. Some analysts remain bullish for the longer term. "The short-term fundamentals are still not that strong but in the medium to long term it looks like there could be tightness because there is no slack in the system," said Tony Nunan, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp.'s international energy business in Tokyo. The next set of U.S. inventory data, to be released on Wednesday, was expected to show a 1.7 million barrel increase in stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel. If confirmed, it would be the tenth weekly increase in a row and would further ease concern that the high-demand fuel stocks could run short ahead of peak consumption in the fourth quater.