Investing.com - Oil prices stayed lower during North American morning hours on Wednesday, after data showed that U.S. crude supplies rose for the sixth week in a row.
Crude oil for March delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange shed 23 cents, or around 0.4%, to $52.97 a barrel by 10:35AM ET (15:35GMT). Prices were at around $53.06 prior to the release of the inventory data.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for April delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 28 cents, or about 0.5%, to $55.64 a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories rose by 9.5 million barrels in the week ended February 10. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock gain of 3.5 million barrels, while the American Petroleum Institute late Tuesday reported a supply increase of 9.9 million barrels.
Supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, the key delivery point for Nymex crude, decreased by 702,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.
Total U.S. crude oil inventories stood at 518.1 million barrels as of last week, which the EIA considered to be at the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories increased by 2.8 million barrels, compared to expectations for a drop 752,000 barrels.
For distillate inventories including diesel, the EIA reported a decline of 689,000 barrels.
Futures have been trading in a narrow range around the lower-to-mid-$50s over the past month as sentiment in oil markets has been torn between hopes that oversupply may be curbed by output cuts announced by major global producers and expectations of a rebound in U.S. shale production.
U.S. drilling activity has risen by almost 7% since mid-2016, taking it back to levels seen in late 2014, when strong U.S. crude output contributed to a collapse in oil prices.
The revival in U.S. drilling has raised concerns that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
OPEC and non-OPEC countries have made a strong start to lowering their oil output under the first such pact in more than a decade as global producers look to reduce oversupply and support prices.
Latest data showed the group’s production in January declined by 890,000 barrels a day from the previous month to 32.14 million barrels a day. The drop indicates a 90% compliance level so far by producers who had agreed to curtail their output.
January 1 marked the official start of the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC member countries such as Russia in November last year to reduce output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the next six months.