Oil Prices Continue Higher As Focus Shifts to U.S. Supply Data

Investing.com – Crude prices continued higher on Tuesday, as investors looked ahead to fresh 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.

Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT). Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.6 million barrels.

New York-traded tacked on 53 cents, or roughly 0.8%, to $69.17 a barrel by 4:05AM ET (0805GMT), not far from last Thursday’s peak of $69.56, which was the highest since Nov. 28, 2014.

Meanwhile, , the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., ticked up 39 cents, or around 0.5%, to $75.11 a barrel. The global benchmark climbed as high as $75.27 earlier in the session, a level not seen since Nov. 27, 2014.

Oil prices on Monday, shaking off early losses, as geopolitical tension in the Middle East and concerns about supply disruptions in key oil-producing nations supported the market.

Ongoing efforts by major global crude producers to reduce a supply glut further added to positive sentiment.

OPEC and 10 producers outside the cartel, including Russia, have been holding back oil output by around 1.8 million bpd since the start of last year to slash global inventories to the five year-average. The arrangement is set to expire at the end of 2018.

The cartel will meet in June to decide whether the production-cut agreement should be adjusted based on market conditions.

But a rise in U.S. drilling for new production marked one of the few factors tamping back crude in an otherwise bullish environment.

U.S. drillers added five oil rigs in the week to April 20, bringing the total count to 820, General Electric (NYSE:)’s Baker Hughes energy services firm said in its closely followed report on Friday.

That was the highest number since March 2015, underscoring worries about rising U.S. output.

Indeed, domestic oil production – driven by shale extraction – rose to an all-time high of 10.54 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. Only Russia produces more at almost 11 million bpd.

In other energy trading, inched up 0.1% to $2.133 a gallon, while gained 0.3% to $2.147 a gallon.

shed 0.3% to $2.768 per million British thermal units.

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