Investing.com - Oil prices edged higher in European trading on Wednesday, bouncing back from the prior session's more than one-month low after industry data overnight showed a sizable decline in U.S. oil and gasoline stockpiles.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude June contract tacked on 25 cents, or around 0.5%, to $47.91 a barrel by 4:05AM ET (08:05GMT).
The U.S. benchmark settled lower for the second session in a row on Tuesday after hitting its weakest level since March 27 at $47.35.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for July delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London added 37 cents to $50.83 a barrel, after sliding to $50.14 in the prior session, its deepest trough since March 27.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories fell by 4.16 million barrels in the week ended April 28.
The API report also showed a decline of 1.93 million barrels in gasoline stocks, while distillate stocks shrank by 440,000 barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report at 10:30AM ET (14:30GMT) Wednesday. There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
Analysts expect crude oil inventories dropped 2.3 million barrels at the end of last week, while gasoline supplies increased by 1.3 million barrels and distillates rose by 720,000 barrels.
Crude has been under pressure in recent weeks amid fears that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
U.S. drillers last week added rigs for the 15th week in a row, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead. The U.S. rig count rose by 9 to 697, extending an 11-month drilling recovery to the highest level since August 2015.
The relentless increase in U.S. output has overshadowed pledged output cuts by major producers.
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day between January and June, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
A final decision on whether or not to extend the deal beyond June will be taken by the oil cartel on May 25.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for June held steady at $1.535 a gallon, while June heating oil rose 1.3 cents to $1.481 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for June delivery inched down 0.4 cents to $3.191 per million British thermal units.