Crude prices edged higher in early action on Wednesday, bouncing back from the prior session’s losses as investors looked ahead to fresh weekly data on U.S. commercial crude inventories to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest oil consumer and how fast output levels will continue to rise.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report for the week ended April 27 at 10:30AM ET (1430GMT), amid forecasts for an oil-stock increase of 739,000 barrels.
Analysts also forecast a fall of 587,000 barrels for gasoline stockpiles, while distillate inventories are expected to drop by 1.3 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels last week.
The API data also showed a climb of 1.6 million barrels in gasoline stockpiles, while inventories of distillates fell by 4.1 million barrels.
There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
New York-traded WTI crude futures tacked on 53 cents, or roughly 0.8%, to $67.78 a barrel by 3:05AM ET (0705GMT).
It lost $1.32 on Tuesday, as traders fretted over rising U.S. output.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., inched up 39 cents, or about 0.5%, to $73.52 a barrel.
The global benchmark sank $1.56 in the last session, amid uncertainty about whether the U.S. will pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
President Donald Trump has until May 12 to decide whether to pull the United States out of a 2015 international accord to curb Iran’s nuclear program and restore sanctions on one of the world’s biggest oil producers.
If sanctions are reinstated, that could contribute to tighter global oil inventories, as it would likely result in a reduction of Tehran’s oil exports.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures rose around 0.2% to $2.090 a gallon, while heating oil gained 0.7% to $2.114 a gallon.
Natural gas futures were a shade lower at $2.796 per million British thermal units.
