Investing.com - Oil prices stabilized during North American hours on Thursday, after plunging nearly 3% to five-week lows in the prior session after data showed that crude supplies in the U.S. rose by the most since records began last week.
Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange inched up 6 cents, or 0.13%, to $45.40 a barrel by 9:40AM ET (13:40GMT), after sinking $1.33, or 2.85%, a day earlier.
The U.S. benchmark slumped to $44.96 on Wednesday, a level not seen since September 28, after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said that crude oil inventories rose by 14.4 million barrels last week, much more than the expected crude-stock gain of 1.0 million barrels.
Total U.S. crude oil stockpiles stood at 482.6 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be “historically high levels for this time of year”.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for January delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London tacked on 23 cents, or 0.49%, to $47.09 a barrel. The contract lost $1.28, or 2.66%, in the prior session.
London-traded Brent prices fell to $46.46 on Wednesday, the lowest since September 28, amid mounting skepticism over the implementation of a planned deal by OPEC to limit production.
OPEC reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held in Algeria in late September. However, the 14-member oil group said it won’t finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.
The possibility that producers could walk away empty-handed from the November meeting looms large after Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Libya all signaled they might not take part in the proposed production cut deal. Russia’s unclear stance is also fueling uncertainty.