Investing.com - Crude prices held gains in Asia on Thursday as markets shrugged off downbeat supply data so far this week from the U.S. and looked ahead to more data on the supply response.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for April delivery rose 0.73% to $48.38 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent gained 0.69% to $50.99 a barrel.
Market attention now turns to the weekly rig count report on Friday from oilfield services firm Baker Hughes. Last week, the report showed the U.S. oil rig count rose by 14 to 631, the ninth straight weekly increase.
Overnight, crude futures settled lower on Wednesday, after the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) report showed a faster rise than expected in U.S. crude inventories.
For the week ended March 15, The EIA said that crude oil inventories rose by 5 million barrels to a record 533.1 million barrels compared to estimates of an increase of only 2.8 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories dipped by 2.811 million against expectations for a draw of 2.008 million barrels while distillate stockpiles fell by 1.910 million barrels, compared to expectations of a 1.386 million decline.
Crude futures have turned bearish this week as fears that a ramp up in U.S. crude and shale oil production may dampened OPEC’s efforts to rebalance supply and demand in the industry.
In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to combat the oversupply issue that has pressured prices over the last two years.