Investing.com - Crude oil prices rebounded in Asia on Thursday as investors saw buying opportunity on an overnight dip on mixed U.S. inventory data.
Record refinery runs in the U.S. are drawing down crude stocks, but gasoline produced is not seeing expected strong demand as the summer driving season heads to a close, said Matt Smith, director of commodities, Clipper Data.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for September delivery rose 0.24% to $46.89, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.44% to $50.49 a barrel.
Overnight, crude futures settled lower on Wednesday, as data showing U.S. crude production rose to its highest in over two years offset a decline in supplies of U.S. crude for a seventh-straight week.
Crude oil fell for the third-straight day, after a report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing crude stockpiles fell by more than expected last week failed to offset concerns over a rise in production.
Inventories of U.S. crude fell by roughly 8.9m barrels in the week ended Aug 11, confounding expectations of a draw of about only 3m barrels. It was seventh-straight week of falling crude inventories.
Gasoline inventories, one of the products that crude is refined into, unexpectedly rose by roughly 22,000 barrels against expectations of a draw of 1.1m barrels while distillate stockpiles rose by 702,000 barrels, compared to expectations of a decline of 572,000 barrels.
The report also highlighted total crude-oil production rose to 9.502m barrels per day, an uptick of 79,000 barrels a day compared to last week. That was the highest weekly output figure since mid-July 2015, and sparked fresh oversupply jitters, pressuring oil prices.
The rise in gasoline stockpiles, also added to oversupply concerns, as analysts expect crude demand will taper as the peak of summer driving season has passed.