Oil Pushes Higher as Focus Shifts to U.S. Supply Data

Investing.com – Crude prices pushed higher on Tuesday, as investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest energy consumer.

Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its at 4:30PM ET (2130GMT) Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around , which would mark the tenth-straight fall.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) tacked on 30 cents, or 0.5%, to $63.87 a barrel by 3:30AM ET (0830GMT). The U.S. benchmark hit its highest since Dec. 2014 on Jan. 16 at $64.89 a barrel.

Meanwhile, futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., were at $69.31 a barrel, up 27 cents, or 0.4%, not far off the Jan. 15 three-year high of $70.37 a barrel.

Oil prices following comments from influential OPEC member Saudi Arabia that the cartel and other major oil producers could extend their production cuts beyond 2018.

OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers have a consensus that they should continue cooperating on production after the end of 2018, when their current agreement on production cuts expires, Saudi Arabian energy minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday.

Falih added that this might mean a new form of deal rather than continuing the same supply cuts that have boosted prices in recent months.

Oil prices have risen almost 50% from around $43 a barrel in June, benefiting from production cut efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. The producers agreed in December to extend current oil output cuts until the end of 2018.

The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.

Analysts and traders have recently warned that U.S. shale oil producers could ramp up production as they look to take advantage of higher prices, potentially derailing an OPEC-led effort to curb excess supply.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its monthly report last week, warned that U.S. output levels could soon exceed 10 million barrels per day (bpd), a level not seen since 1970.

In other energy trading, were steady around $1.890 a gallon, while gained 0.3% to $2.062 a gallon.

rallied 5.2 cents, or 1.6%, to $3.276 per million British thermal units.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.