Investing.com - Oil prices firmed amid thinning pre-New Year holiday trade on Tuesday, less than a week before major global oil producers scale back production in line with the deal they struck last month.
Trading activity was likely to stay subdued as many investors already closed books before the end of the year, reducing liquidity in the market.
Crude oil for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on 19 cents, or 0.36%, to $53.21 a barrel by 4:40AM ET (09:40GMT).
Elsewhere, Brent oil for March delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London eased up 4 cents, or 0.07%, to $55.94 a barrel.
The oil market was closed on Monday due to the Christmas holiday.
OPEC members agreed to reduce output by a combined 1.2 million barrels per day starting from January 1, their first such deal since 2008.
The pact was followed by an agreement from 11 non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, to cut their supplies by 558,000 barrels a day, bringing the total to almost 1.8 million barrels per day.
However, some traders remain skeptical that the planned cuts will be as substantial as the market currently expects.
There are also some worries in the market about production increases in the U.S. and Libya.
According to oilfield services provider Baker Hughes, the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. last week increased by 13 to 523, the eighth straight weekly rise and a level not seen in almost a year.
Meanwhile, Libya, which is allowed to ramp up production as part of the OPEC deal, announced the reopening of pipelines leading from two major fields last week. Libyan officials said the restarting of the oilfields and a connected pipeline could bring back around 270,000 barrels a day over the next three months.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for February shed 1.7 cents, or 1.1% to $1.622 a gallon, while February heating oil slipped 0.2 cents, or 0.1%, to $1.679 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for February delivery jumped 8.9 cents, or 2.4%, to $3.767 per million British thermal units, as a cold snap in the U.S. boosted demand.