The International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday that large oil inventories are posing a threat to recent price stability.
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At about 0400 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 61 cents, or 1.36 percent, at US$45.36 while Brent crude rose 57 cents, or 1.23 percent, to US$46.83.
USA gasoline RBc1 settled almost 4 percent lower, while heating oil HOc1, a proxy for ultra low sulfur diesel, slumped more than 5 percent.
Stocks of US crude and refined products rose unexpectedly last week by 2.2 million barrels, data from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, showed late on Tuesday.
In its monthly Oil Market Report, the agency said global oil supplies rose by 600,000 barrels per day to 96 million barrels per day in June as outages curbed both OPEC and non-OPEC supplies in May.
The EIA said crude inventories fell 2.5 million barrels last week, less than the 3 million-barrel drop forecast in a Reuters poll.
We’ll look at the relationship between the US Dollar Index and crude oil prices later in this series. Gasoline inventories rose 1.21 million barrels, while analysts had forecast a decline.
US gasoline inventories rose to 240.1 million barrels, while analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 1 million barrel drop.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories increased by 1.2 million barrels, disappointing expectations for a decline of 432,000 barrels, while distillate stockpiles jumped by 4.1 million barrels.
“The adjustments to our data this month suggest that little has changed with the market showing an extraordinary transformation from a major surplus in 1Q16 [the first quarter] to near-balance in 2Q16”, it added.
Crude stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI and the biggest USA oil-storage hub, decreased by 232,000 barrels to 63.9 million, the lowest levels since January, the report showed.
Crude production is expected to fall to 8.61 million bpd in 2016, compared with 8.60 million bpd forecast previously.
Refined oil products also slumped on Wednesday, stung by the EIA data. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 3 million barrel decline. The bank forecast USA crude would average $43.59 per barrel this year versus $36.91 in its earlier forecast, and $55.00 for 2017, versus $52.88 earlier.
Nigeria has lost its top Africa producer title to Angola, whose production is nearing two million barrels per day.
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Brent North Sea crude for September delivery shed 81 cents to $47.66 a barrel.
