Investing.com - Crude oil prices were mixed in Asia on Tuesday with US industry inventor estimates ahead and weakness seen in the US benchmark as a pipeline feeding crude from Canada comes back online.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for January delivery eased 0.45% to $57.85 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.36% to trade at $63.70 a barrel.
TransCanada said will ease into startup on the Keystone pipeline shut for a spill from Nov. 28, sending WTI weaker.
Later, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reports its estimates for crude and refined product stocks late on Tuesday in the US followed by official data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Analysts see crude oil stocks down 3.150 million barrels art the end of last week. Distillate stocks are seen down by 125,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories are seen up by 1.170 million barrels.
Overnight, crude oil prices settled lower on Monday as uncertainty concerning Russia’s willingness to extend output curbs beyond March ahead of the OPEC meeting this week weighed on sentiment.
Despite expectations that OPEC will agree to extend its production cut agreement beyond March at its Nov. 30 meeting, investor doubts grew over whether Russia would agree to join in extending output curbs amid fears that major oil producers, particularly U.S. shale producers, who are not part of the pact will ramp up output to gain market share.
U.S. crude oil production has risen by 15% to 9.66 million barrels per day (bpd) since mid-2016, not far from top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, while recent data showing a rise in drilling activity indicated an ongoing increase in US production.
Baker Hughes reported last week that the number of U.S. oil rigs rose by 9 to 747. US rig counts are on track for a monthly gain for the first time since July.
Uncertainty over continued Russia participation in the supply-cut agreements beyond March comes days after Bloomberg reported that Moscow and Riyadh had agreed they should announce an additional period of cuts at the Nov. 30 meeting.
In May, OPEC producers agreed to extend production cuts for a period of nine months until March, but stuck to production cuts of 1.2 million bpd agreed in November last year.