Investing.com - Crude oil prices rose in Asia on Wednesday after data pointed to a drop in U.S. gasoline stocks with the summer driving season gearing up.
The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said late Tuesday that its data showed a 912,000-barrel rise in crude-oil supplies in the past week, according to industry sources.
The API also said gasoline supplies fell by 2 million barrels and distillate stocks rose by 883,000 barrels.
Market watchers are also waiting for weekly storage data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which is set to be released on Wednesday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude oil for delivery in June traded at $101.87 a barrel, up 0.16%, after hitting an overnight session low of $100.37 a barrel and a high of $101.51 a barrel.
Brent oil on the ICE futures exchange rose 83 cents, or 0.8%, to $109.24 a barrel on Tuesday, the highest settlement since April 25.
Pro-Russian separatists claimed victory in a weekend referendum on self-rule in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which stirred concerns that the country is sliding closer to civil war.
The vote has been condemned by Ukraine’s government and the West, which has threatened to hit Russia with fresh sanctions, underlining concerns over a disruption to supplies from the region.
Russia produced 10.4 million barrels of oil per day in 2012 and exported 7.4 million, making it the world’s second largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Libya said earlier its western oilfields and ports were set to reopen.
Armed protestors have blocked the fields since March, and normal operations could hike Libyan crude output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd).
While both sides recently brokered an agreement to resume oil shipments, the National Oil Corporation said the timing of any restart still remained unclear, which boosted crude futures by stoking expectations for Libyan supply to remain off the market for longer than expected.
Weak data in the U.S. failed to dampen oil's advance.
The Commerce Department reported earlier that U.S. retail sales rose just 0.1% in April, missing expectations for a 0.4% increase. Retail sales for March were revised up to a 1.5% gain from a previously reported increase of 1.2%.
Core retail sales, which exclude automobile sales, were flat in April, disappointing forecasts for a 0.6% increase. Core sales in March were revised up to a rise of 1% from a previously reported increase of 0.7%