Investing.com - Oil prices pared back losses on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an unexpectedly large oil inventory drawdown last week.
U.S. crude was trading at $52.46 a barrel at 10:35 ET, down 57 cents or 1.08% from its last close, off an intra-day low of $51.84.
Global benchmark Brent futures were at $55.37 a barrel, down 35 cents or 0.63%.
Crude oil inventories fell by 2.56 million barrels last week, the EIA said.
That was compared to forecasts for a drawdown of 1.58 million barrels after a draw of 2.38 million barrels in the previous week.
Stockpiles of gasoline and distillates also surprised to the downside, with gasoline stockpiles increasing by just 0.49 million barrels and distillates falling by 0.76 million barrels.
Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub for U.S. crude rose by 1.22 million barrels.
The report came after the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly rose by 4.7 million barrels last week.
Prices had fallen earlier in the day after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said that a global supply overhang will grow next year unless major producers follow through on a weekend agreement to rein in output.
OPEC pumped 33.87 million barrels per day last month it said in a in a monthly report, up by 150,000 bpd from October.
But the group was hopeful that supply curbs pledged by non-OPEC members at the weekend, in addition to its own output cuts, will tackle the supply overhand and drive up prices.
Producers from outside OPEC agreed Saturday to cut output by 558,000 bpd from January 1, on top of a cut of 1.2 million bpd cut announced by OPEC on November 30.
The total reduction represents almost 2% of global oil output.
Oil production has been outstripping consumption by between one to two million barrels per day since late 2014, pressuring prices lower.