Crude oil futures were higher during mid-morning trade in Asia Tuesday amid expectations of a draw in weekly US crude stocks data and on indications of OPEC maintaining production cuts.
At 10:45 am Singapore time (0245 GMT), July ICE Brent crude futures were up 24 cents/b (0.33%) from Monday's settle to $72.21/b, while the NYMEX June light sweet crude contract was 25 cents/b (0.4%) higher at $63.35/b.
Analysts surveyed Monday by S&P Global Platts were looking for US crude stocks to have fallen by 2 million barrels in the week ended May 17.
If confirmed by US Energy Information Administration data due for release Wednesday, it would be the third week-on-week decline in the past 10 weeks.
The analysts surveyed expect US distillate stocks to have fallen 1 million barrels last week and gasoline stocks to have increased by 1 million barrels over the same period.
"Crude is mildly higher this morning, but I don't see a strong upward momentum," said Vandana Hari, founder Vanda Insights.
Speaking at the OPEC/non-OPEC monitoring committee meeting in Jeddah Sunday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the kingdom would not be altering its production cut targets.
"We want a balanced market," Falih said after the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee Meeting, an OPEC/non-OPEC body he co-chairs with Russian counterpart Alexander Novak, which met to debate how much crude to pump going forward.
"If there is a need to revisit target production we can re-adjust our targets, but don't anticipate that will be needed," Falih said.
"Al-Falih's support of a rollover of cuts may be bullish, but his weekend comments on supply being plentiful and Iran managing to export much more crude than what the market believes are arguably bearish," Hari said.
Falih said he believed a lot of crude was leaving Iranian borders that was not accounted for as Iranian oil. "It's presented in the markets, and therefore we are not seeing as much demand for other crudes as many analysts are expecting," he added.
"Tension in the Middle East continues and the risk premium is reflected in the price," ANZ analysts said in a note Tuesday.
As of 0245 GMT, the US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 97.80
