Investing.com - Crude prices fell in Asia on Friday, retracing recent gains built on a surprise stockpile drop and looking ahead to U.S. with rig count data slated.
Crude oil for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 1.08% to $45.82 a barrel. on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for November delivery dipped 0.84% to $47.25 a barrel
Last week, oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. rose by 2 to 416, marking the 11th increase in 12 weeks.
Overnight, oil prices extended sharp overnight gains during North American hours on Thursday, as a broadly weaker U.S. dollar and easing concerns over a slowdown in U.S. crude demand boosted sentiment.
Another supportive factor was an oil workers' strike in Norway, which threatened to cut North Sea crude output.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, crude oil inventories fell by 6.2 million barrels last week to 504.6 million, surprising market analysts who expected an increase of 3.35 million barrels.
The report also showed that gasoline inventories tumbled by 3.204 million barrels, compared to expectations for a decline of 0.567 million barrels, while distillate stockpiles rose by 2.238 million barrels, compared to forecasts for an increase of 0.250 million.
Oil traders continued to weigh prospects that major oil producing nations will freeze output to support the market when they meet next week.
OPEC members, led by Saudi Arabia and other big Middle East crude exporters, will meet non-OPEC producers led by Russia at informal talks in Algeria between September 26 and 28.
According to market experts, chances that the meeting would yield any action to reduce the global glut appeared minimal. Instead, most believe that oil producers will continue to monitor the market and possibly postpone freeze talks to the official OPEC meeting in Vienna on November 30.
An attempt to jointly freeze production levels earlier this year failed after Saudi Arabia backed out over Iran's refusal to take part of the initiative, underscoring the difficulty for political rivals to forge consensus.