Investing.com - Oil prices edged lower during European morning hours on Thursday, extending a pullback from the prior session's four-week high amid concern over rising production and swelling stockpiles in the U.S.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude May contract shed 15 cents, or around 0.3%, to $51.01 a barrel by 3:55AM ET (07:55GMT).
It settled higher for the second session in a row on Wednesday after hitting its strongest since March 8 at $51.88.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for June delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London slipped 8 cents to $54.28 a barrel. The global benchmark touched its highest since March 8 at $55.09 in the prior session.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that crude oil inventories increased by 1.57 million barrels last week to yet another all-time high of 535.5 million.
It was the 13th weekly build in U.S. stockpiles in the past 15 weeks, feeding concerns about a global glut.
The record crude inventories came as U.S. oil production rose 52,000 barrels per day to 9.2 million last week, levels last seen at the start of the market slump in late 2014 and early 2015.
The figures offset optimism that OPEC and its allies have been following through on their commitment to cut production.
Oil prices reached a four-week high on Wednesday amid increasing optimism that OPEC’s supply curbs are beginning to rebalance the market.
OPEC agreed in November last year to curb its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day between January and June. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC producers have agreed to jointly cut by an additional 600,000 barrels per day.
In total, they agreed to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the first six months of the year.
A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers will meet in late April to present its recommendation on the fate of the pact. 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 May added 0.4 cents, or 0.3%, to $1.713 a gallon, while May heating oil dipped 0.2 cents to $1.601 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for May delivery tacked on 0.2 cents to $3.268 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the global day.