Mubasher: Oil prices settled higher on Wednesday supported by expectations that major oil producers earlier next month would agree to withhold supplies.
By 8:35 pm GMT, US Nymex crude futures climbed 1.95% to $54.47 per barrel (pb), while global benchmark Brent futures rose 1.36% to $63.38 pb.
Higher prices came despite US official data showed a build-up in domestic oil inventories for the ninth week in a row.
US markets would be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.
Both contracts earlier this month lapsed into a bear market, declining at least 20% from almost four-year highs in early October.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies hinted earlier this month that they could cut production.
OPEC reportedly reached a provisional agreement on cutting production at a meeting slated for next month, but has yet to decide on the slashed amount, according to Thomson Reuters.
If enacted, the supply cut would come just months after the producer group decided to pump more supplies following more than a year of curbing output.
Rising prices came despite world’s major producers US, Saudi Arabia and Russia ramped up crude production at record levels, leading global supply to outrun demand, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.
US crude stockpiles climbed 4.9 million barrels to 446.9 million barrels in the week ended 16 November, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday.
Moreover, data released by energy service firm Baker Hughes indicated that the total count of active US oil-drilling rigs dropped by three to 885 this week, after gains in each of the past two weeks.
In addition, oil production from Saudi Arabia surged to a record ranging from around 10.8 million barrels per day (bpd) to 10.9 million bpd this month, Bloomberg reported.
A decision by the US administration to grant exemptions to major importers of Iranian crude after the sanctions against Tehran came into effect spurred a global sell-off in barrels.
The re-instated sanctions were expected to remove most Iranian oil from the market.
