TOKYO, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Oil futures were up slightly in early Asian trade on Thursday, barely making a dent in losses posted the previous session after official figures showed a sixth consecutive week of inventory gains in U.S. crude stockpiles.
Crude prices slumped as much as 4 percent on Thursday after the Energy Information Administration said U.S. crude inventories added 2.85 million barrels last week, in line with forecasts, despite a drop in imports to the lowest level since 1991 EIA/S .
U.S. crude CLc1 was up 12 cents at $46.44 a barrel in thin trade by 0100 GMT. The contract fell $1.58, or 3.3 percent, to $46.32 on Wednesday.
Brent crude LCOc1 rose 19 cents to $48.77 a barrel, after dropping 3.9 percent on Wednesday.
Contributing to the general bearish sentiment was an internal OPEC document published by Reuters that showed weaker demand in the next few years for oil from the producer group. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12Z2NP
OPEC oil ministers are due to meet on Dec. 4 to decide whether to extend the strategy of allowing prices to fall to slow higher-cost rival supply.
Since November 2014, when the group adopted that policy, OPEC production has risen but prices have deepened their collapse, hurting oil revenue.
Saudi Arabia, the biggest OPEC producer, has been pumping near record levels to protect its market share, but has seen oil revenues slump.