Investing.com - Crude oil prices gained in Asia on Thursday with sentiment still upbeat on supply and demand increasingly coming into balance globally.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for December delivery rose 0.07% to $54.34 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.23% to $60.63 a barrel.
Overnight, crude oil prices settled lower on Wednesday as a surge in crude exports offset data showing supplies of U.S crude oil and gasoline decline more-than-expected.
U.S. oil production grew by 46,000 barrels a day (bpd) to 9.55 million barrels a day, not far off the June. 5, 2015 record high of 9.61 million barrels per day while weekly U.S. crude oil exports rose to an all-time high of 2.13 million barrels per day, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) said Wednesday.
The ongoing surge in U.S. crude exports comes as the widening spread between WTI crude and Brent oil prices continued to increase international demand for U.S. crude.
The uptick in production overshadowed a mixed report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing crude and gasoline stockpiles declined more than expected while distillate fell less-than-expected.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 2.4 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 27, a steeper decline than the 1.8 million barrels expected.
Gasoline inventories – one of the products that crude is refined into – fell by 4 million barrels, confounding expectations of a draw of just 2.1 million barrels while supplies of distillate – the class of fuels that includes diesel and heating oil – fell by about 320,000 barrels, undershooting expectations of a decline of 2.1 million barrels.
The dip in oil prices comes amid as growing expectations for an extension to the output-cut agreement lifted crude prices to an eighth-month high after OPEC and non-OPEC members signalled support for an extension ahead of the upcoming OPEC meeting in November.
In May, OPEC producers agreed to extend production cuts for a period of nine months until March, but stuck to production cuts of 1.2 million bpd agreed in November last year.