Investing.com - U.S. crude hovered near August highs nearing midday trade on Tuesday as investors prepared for the latest weekly data on American oil stockpiles.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude futures dipped 18 cents, or 0.26%, at $68.69 a barrel by 11:42 AM ET (15:42 GMT), not far from its intraday high of $69.19. The month’s high at $69.92 was reached on Aug. 6.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., inched up 1 cent, or 0.01%, to $76.51, its highest level since July 11.
The American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report for the week ended Aug. 10 at 4:30 PM ET (20:30 GMT) Tuesday, while official government data will be released on Wednesday.
Last week’s numbers showed a larger-than-expected draw on inventories, curtailing concerns about oversupply.
Additionally, an OPEC and non-OPEC monitoring committee found that oil producers participating in a supply-reduction agreement cut output in July by 9% more than called for in their pact, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.
OPEC and other major oil producers led by Russia agreed on June 22-23 to reduce their compliance to production curbs to 100% when it had reached nearly 150% due to shortages and disruptions in member countries such as Venezuela, Libya or Angola.
The data Reuters reported suggested that production had not increased as much as planned.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures fell 0.60% to $1.9751 a gallon by 11:47 AM ET (15:47 GMT), while heating oil advanced 0.19% to $2.2248 a gallon.
Lastly, natural gas futures lost 1.01% to $2.840 per million British thermal units.