Investing.com - Crude oil prices remained lower on Tuesday, as traders locked in profits from the commodity's recent rally to multi-month highs amid optimism that the market is well on its way towards rebalancing.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude October contract was at $51.83 a barrel, down 40 cents or about 0.73% by 09:00 a.m. ET (13:00 GMT), after hitting a fove-month peak of $52.43 earlier in the day.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for November delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London was down 81 cents or about 1.39% at $57.62 a barrel, off an eight-month high of 58.88 reached overnight.
Prices have been supported this week as data showed strong compliance from major producers with their supply cut agreement and as talk grows of a likely extension of the deal.
OPEC and non-OPEC compliance with the deal to curb output rose to 116% in August, a strong increase from the 94% compliance achieved a month ago.
In May, OPEC and non-OPEC members led by Russia agreed to extend production cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day for a period of nine months until March 2018 in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.
Russia’s energy minister suggested that January is the earliest date that an extension to the global accord can be considered, although other ministers suggested such a decision could be taken before the end of this year.
The committee’s next meeting is set for November 29 in Vienna, just a day ahead of OPEC’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Turkey's threat to cut off a major pipeline that carries oil from from Iraq's Kurdistan region to the outside world provided further support. The pipeline to Turkey's port of Ceyhan usually pumps between 500,000-600,000 barrels per day.
Investors now looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products to weigh what the impact of recent storm activity was on supply and demand.
Elsewhere, gasoline futures gained lost 1.20% to $1.651 a gallon, while natural gas futures climbed 0.87% to $3.014 per million British thermal units.