U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 38 cents, or 0.9 percent, at $45.28 a barrel.
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On Wednesday, officials in Tripoli announced they plan to load the first crude-oil cargo in almost two years from a major port, Ras Lanuf.
Oil prices collapsed in the early U.S session, paring all of their gains from earlier in the day.
The IEA’s comments follow a surprisingly bearish outlook from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Monday that also pointed to a larger surplus next year due to new fields in non-member countries.
Oil prices have experienced a rise due to a drop in United States crude stocks by 559,000 barrels in the week ending 9 September.
Crude prices fell about 3% for a second consecutive day on Wednesday following a 4.6-million barrel build in U.S. distillates inventories.
Brent for November settlement was at $46.83 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, down 27 cents.
“Supply will continue to outpace demand at least through the first half of next year”, the report said.
The most recent release coming from the American Petroleum Institute (API) weekly inventory data reported a rise of 1.4 million barrels for last week. US shale drillers are also proving more resilient than expected to cheap crude, OPEC said. The contract fell $1.32 to $43.58 on Wednesday, the lowest close since September 1.
The International Energy Agency slashed its consumption growth forecast for this year by 100,000 barrels per day and sees an even weaker expansion in 2017.
“EIA stockpile data is expected later today, which should provide some additional direction to crude oil prices”.
Saudi Arabia’s crude supply dipped to 10.6 million barrels per day in August, down slightly from 10.65 million bpd in July, according to Bloomberg. Analysts believe that oil prices are expected to drop in the short run given less than anticipated demand from major developing nations including China and India.
“The IEA spooked people yesterday”, said Matt Sallee, who helps manage $US15 billion in oil-related assets at Tortoise Capital Advisors in Leawood, Kansas.
The country has increased its output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) since May 2016 and reached the level of 10.6 million bpd in August, while US oil output decreased by 460,000 bpd in the reported period. In the products, gasoline stocks were down 2.4 million barrels versus an estimate of a 1.1 million draw.
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Crude prices have hovered just below the $50 per barrel mark as investors wait on the outcome of upcoming informal OPEC meeting.
