Investing.com - Oil prices pulled back during North American morning hours on Tuesday, as investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly 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 2.9 million barrels.
Last week's numbers showed U.S. output helped boost crude inventories to record highs, feeding concerns about a global glut.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude April contract lost 54 cents, or around 1%, to $53.48 a barrel by 9:10AM ET (14:10GMT).
Elsewhere, Brent oil for May delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London declined 57 cents to $55.85 a barrel.
According to market experts, failure to break through the upper range of a recent trading band dampened sentiment.
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 hopes that oversupply may be curbed by output cuts announced by major global producers and expectations of a rebound in U.S. shale production.
Data from oilfield services provider Baker Hughes revealed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil rose by five last week, the sixth weekly increase in a row.
That brought the total count to 602, the most since October 2015, raising concerns that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
Hedge funds extended their bullish bets on oil to an all-time high last week as OPEC and non-OPEC countries 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 90%.
OPEC could extend its oil supply-reduction pact with non-members or even apply deeper cuts from July if global crude inventories fail to drop to a targeted level, OPEC sources said earlier this month.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for April shed 2.9 cents, or around 1.7%, to $1.711 a gallon, while March heating oil fell 2.4 cents to $1.624 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for April delivery jumped 3.1 cents, or almost 1.2%, to $2.724 per million British thermal units.