Investing.com - Oil prices were higher during European morning hours on Wednesday, bouncing off the lowest level in around four months after industry data showed a surprise drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories fell by a surprising 530,000 barrels in the week ended March 10.
The API report also showed a drop of 3.9 million barrels in gasoline stocks, while distillate stocks declined 4.1 million barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report at 10:30AM ET (14:30GMT) Wednesday. If the draw is confirmed, it would be the first drawdown after nine consecutive builds.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude April contract tacked on 72 cents, or around 1.5%, to $48.44 a barrel by 5:00AM ET (09:00GMT).
It settled lower for the seventh session in a row on Tuesday after hitting its weakest since November 30 at $47.09 after a report showed Saudi Arabia raised output back above 10 million barrels a day in February, underlining concerns over a global supply glut.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for May delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London added 62 cents to $51.55 a barrel. The global benchmark sank to $50.25 in the prior session, its cheapest since November 30.
Oil tumbled on Tuesday after OPEC said its members pumped 31.95 million barrels per day in February, down 139,500 barrels per day from January. However, Saudi Arabia boosted production by 263,300 barrels a day to 10.011 million, reversing about a third of the cuts it made the previous month.
January 1 marked the official start of the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC member countries such as Russia in November last year to reduce output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the next six months.
Kuwait is scheduled to host a ministerial meeting on March 26 comprising both OPEC and non-OPEC members to review compliance with the output agreement and to discuss whether cuts would be extended beyond June.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for April held steady at $1.599 a gallon, while April heating oil rose 1.8 cents to $1.510 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for April delivery was little changed at $2.937 per million British thermal units.