Brent oil futures were trading at $51.15 per barrel at 0910 GMT, down 80 cents while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 85 cents at $49.71 a barrel.
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Oil prices gave back some of their recent gains in North American trade on Thursday, as a rally which took prices to the highest level since July prompted market players to lock in gains in a bout of profit-taking.
USA inventory data on Wednesday confirmed a tightening market picture, with United States commercial stocks dropping by 3.2 million barrels for the week ending Jun 3, according to the Department of Energy. Prices above $50 per barrel indicate an increase in profitability for the producers.
Oil prices have nearly doubled since hitting near 13-year lows at the start of the year, helped by an easing supply glut as output falls in Nigeria because of unrest and in Canada owing to the country’s wildfires.
Crude has surged more than 95 percent from a 12-year low in February amid unexpected disruptions and a steady slide in USA output, which is under pressure from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ policy of pumping without limits.
USA oil stockpiles declined for a third week to 532.5 million barrels, EIA data showed.
This has added to hopes that the economy of the world’s second-largest oil user may be stabilising. Chinese oil imports in the first five months of the year, combined, were 16% up on the same period last year, according to Commerzbank.
The Niger Delta Avengers, a rebel group that has attacked numerous oil facilities in Nigeria, rejected a truce offer with officials and claimed they hit a new target.
A new wildfire in Canada forced Cenovus to evacuate workers and shut its Pelican Lake operations, while Canadian Natural Resources brought down output from a nearby site, the companies said on Wednesday.
ANZ bank said the rises were “tempered by an increase in (U.S.) crude production of 10,000 barrels per day to 8.75 million barrels per day and the number of active rigs increasing by 9 to 325”.
With fundamentals both for and against higher prices, many traders and analysts say a price of $50-60 per barrel may be fair value.
Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock-the benchmark gasoline contract-fell 0.2% to $1.58 a gallon.
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Jenny W. Hsu contributed to this article.
