Investing.com - Oil prices extended their longest winning streak in more than seven years in European trade on Wednesday, touching the strongest level in a month, underpinned by a decline in U.S. output.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude August contract was at $47.16 a barrel by 4:00AM ET (0800GMT), up 9 cents, or around 0.2%. It touched its highest since June 7 at $47.32 in overnight trade.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for September delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London tacked on 15 cents, or about 0.3%, to $49.76 a barrel, after hitting a one-month high of $49.90.
Trade volumes were thin on Tuesday, as U.S. markets remained closed for the Independence Day holiday.
The commodity notched an eighth-straight session of gains on Monday, the longest such streak of wins for U.S. crude since December 2009, as investors cheered fresh signals of a decline in U.S. crude production.
The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil declined by two last week to 756 rigs, according to energy services company Baker Hughes, the first drop after 23 consecutive weeks.
The decline helped stoke sentiment that shale producers may have hit a bottleneck amid prolonged low prices.
Crude reached bear-market territory late last month amid concern that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production is derailing efforts by other major producers to rebalance the market.
In May, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
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 (2030GMT) later on Wednesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Thursday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.8 million barrels.
The reports come out one day later than usual due to the U.S. Independence Day holiday on Tuesday.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for August was little changed at $1.529 a gallon, while August heating oil added about half a cent to $1.519 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for August delivery rose 3.1 cents to $2.982 per million British thermal units.