Investing.com - Crude oil prices gained in Asia On Wednesday as industry estimates on U.S. inventories threw up an unexpected drop in supplies.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for November delivery rose 0.39% to $52.08, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.17% to $58.02 a barrel.
U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 761,000 barrels at the end of last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated Tuesday, compared with a 2.296 million barrels build expected.
Gasoline inventories however rose by 1.5 million barrels compared to a 962,000 barrels decline seen and distillates declined by 4.5 million barrels, compared with a 2.474 million barrels drop expected.
Oil supplies at the hub of Cushing, Oklahoma, rose by 1.1 million barrels.
Official data will be released on Wednesday from the U.S. energy Information Administration (EIA). The API and EIA figures often diverge.
Overnight, crude oil prices settled lower on Tuesday, as investors appeared to take profit on the recent rally that has seen oil prices hit multi-month highs ahead of weekly inventory data due Wednesday expected to show crude oil supplies rose for the fourth-straight week.
A day after crude oil prices jumped to a four-month high following a threat from Turkey’s president to cut off oil exports from a Kurdish region of Iraq, traders appeared to unwind some of their bullish bets on crude oil futures ahead of a fresh batch of U.S. crude inventory data.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday warned his country could “close the valves” on the pipeline that carries 500,000-600,000 barrels of crude per day from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The potential supply disruption, however, was weighed against expectations of an uptick in U.S. output, as disruptions to U.S. refinery activity due to storm Harvey continues to pressure demand for crude oil, adding to excess supplies.
“… we’re starting to see a correction in price as investors start to take profits at the highs,” said Adrienne Murphy, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. And “the efforts of OPEC and its allies may be futile, given the robust growth of the U.S. shale industry.”