Investing.com - West Texas Intermediate oil futures moved away from intraday highs in North America trade on Wednesday, after data showed that oil supplies in the U.S. registered an unexpected increase.
Crude oil for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 14 cents, or 0.29%, to trade at $48.45 a barrel by 14:34GMT, or 10:34AM ET. In a session of choppy trade, prices were at around $48.62 prior to the release of the inventory data after hitting an intraday low at $48.05 and having peaked earlier at $48.73.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories unexpectedly rose by 1.31 million barrels in the week ended May 13. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock decline of 2.833 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply decrease of 1.2 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, rose by 0.461 million barrels last week, the EIA said. Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 541.3 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be “historically high levels for this time of year”.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories decreased by 2.496 million barrels, compared to expectations for a drop of 0.15 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles fell by 3.17 million barrels, compared to forecasts for a 0.642 million decline.
A day earlier, New York-traded oil futures rallied to $48.76, the most since October 12, amid mounting concerns over global supply disruptions.
Oil prices have been well-supported in recent weeks due to a combination of Nigerian, Libyan and Venezuelan supply outages, declining U.S. shale output and reduced production of Canadian crude as a result of fires in Alberta's oil sands region.
Nymex oil prices are up nearly 80% since falling to 13-year lows at $26.05 on February 11.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for July delivery slipped 5 cents, or 0.10%, to $49.33 a barrel. On Tuesday, London-traded Brent futures jumped to $49.75, a level not seen since November 4.
Brent futures prices are up by roughly 85% since briefly dropping below $30 a barrel in mid-February, despite the collapse of talks at a Doha summit in April aimed at achieving a production freeze among OPEC and Non-OPEC producers. OPEC meets on June 2 in Vienna and may discuss the freeze initiative again.
Meanwhile, Brent's premium to the WTI crude contract stood at 91 cents a barrel, compared to a gap of 97 cents by close of trade on Tuesday.