Crude oil futures were lower during mid-morning trade in Asia Thursday amid a mix of bullish and bearish indicators in weekly US inventory data as market focus remains on the OPEC/non-OPEC meet in December.
At 10:15 am Singapore time (0215 GMT), ICE January Brent crude futures were down 18 cents/b (0.28%) from Wednesday's settle at $63.30/b, while NYMEX January light sweet crude contract was 17 cents/b (0.31%) lower at $54.46/b.
US crude stocks rose 4.85 million barrels to 446.91 million barrels in the week ended November 16, US Energy information Administration data released Wednesday showed. The build marks the ninth straight week of increase and exceeded analyst expectations of a 2.8 million-barrel build.
"For the ninth consecutive week, crude oil was bearish due to a stock build," Societe Generale analysts said in a note, adding: "The crude build occurred despite the large increase in crude runs."
US refinery utilization rose 2.6 percentage points in the week to a nine-week high of 92.7% of capacity, the data showed. Refinery utilization has rebounded from 88.8% in mid-October to be currently in line with year-ago levels.
While the data on US crude stocks was bearish, the accompanying oil products data provided a floor to prices, analysts said.
US gasoline stocks fell 1.3 million barrels in the week to 225.32 million barrels, while US distillate stocks fell 77,000 barrels to 119.19 million barrels, the EIA data showed.
"Despite US inventories rising by 4.85 million barrels last week, the drop in stockpiles of gasoline and distillate helped support sentiment in the market," ANZ analysts said in a note.
"Oil prices recovered from the lowest levels in months after US government data showed strong demand for refined fuel, but concerns remained over rising global crude supply," UOB analysts said in a note.
Meanwhile, provisional data from S&P Global Platts trade flow service cFlow showed crude shipments from Saudi Arabia in the first half of November were as high as 7.80 million b/d, up from 7.56 million b/d in October.
Saudi Arabia self-reported to the Riyadh-based Joint Organizations Data Initiative earlier this month that its September crude exports averaged 7.43 million b/d.
This comes in the leadup to the OPEC/non-OPEC meeting in Vienna December 6 where producer countries will debate whether to cut crude production.
"At the end of 2014, it was OPEC's decision not to cut production that sparked the price slide. This is unlikely to be repeated at OPEC's meeting in a good two weeks' time. A production cut of at least 1 million b/d will probably be agreed there, with a number of non-OPEC countries also likely to sign up," Commezbank analysts said in a note.
"We see the oil market as being in a phase of exaggeration and expect a noticeable price recovery after the OPEC meeting at the latest," they added.
As of 0215 GMT, the US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 96.565.
