Investing.com - Oil prices were higher during North American morning hours on Tuesday, as investors awaited comments by Saudi Arabia's energy minister while looking ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude April contract added 51 cents, or around 1%, to $53.73 a barrel by 9:10AM ET (14:10GMT), after losing 13 cents on Monday.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for May delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London tacked on 54 cents to $56.55 a barrel after gaining 11 cents in the prior session.
Oil traders will pay close attention to comments from major OPEC figures and other producers attending the annual weeklong CERAWeek Conference in Houston, Texas.
Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih will address the meeting at 9:50AM ET (14:50GMT) on Tuesday. OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo also speaks at the conference on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly stockpile report at 4:30PM ET (21:30GMT) later on Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock rise of 1.7 million barrels.
Last week's numbers showed U.S. output helped boost crude inventories to record highs, feeding concerns about a global glut.
Oil prices have been trading in a narrow $5 range around the mid-$50s over the past two months as sentiment in oil markets has been torn between rising stockpiles and increased shale production in the U.S. and hopes that oversupply may be curbed by output cuts announced by major global producers.
OPEC and non-OPEC countries have made a strong start to lowering their oil output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day by the end of June, with compliance currently at around 94%.
At the same time, the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by 7 last week, the seventh weekly increase in a row. That brought the total count to 609, the most since October 2015.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for April climbed 2.0 cents, or around 1.2%, to $1.702 a gallon, while April heating oil added 2.7 cents to $1.631 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for April delivery slumped 6.4 cents, or 2.2%, to $2.837 per million British thermal units.