Investing.com - Crude oil prices held mostly steady in early Asia on Tuesday with Tokyo shut and investors looking ahead to U.S. industry data on crude and refined product stockpiles.
Later Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute will release crude, gasoline and distillate stocks for last week, to be followed Wednesday by more closely-watched data from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Japanese markets are closed today to mark Children's Day public holiday, a period commonly known as Golden Week. Markets are closed through Wednesday and re-open on Thursday.
Also up ahead, the RBA's cash rate decision is due at 1430 (0430 GMT). The overwhelming majority of economists expect a 25 basis points cut to a new record low of 2.0%.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for June delivery eased 0.02% to $58.92 a barrel.
Overnight, crude futures fell mildly on Monday after approaching near six-month highs, as investors locked into profits from last month's extended rally.
On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Brent crude for June delivery dipped 0.07 or 0.11% to 66.39 on Monday, after reaching $67.08 earlier in the session – its highest level since Dec. 9.
Last month, crude futures spiked by more than 18% as declining production eased fears of global oversupply. Crude is still down, however, by more than 40% after reaching triple digits last summer.
On Monday, Genscape Inc., a leading global provider of real-time data for commodity and energy markets told clients that crude stockpiles at the Cushing Oil Hub in Oklahoma fell by 100,000 for the week that ended April 31.
It came after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that supply levels at Cushing declined by 500,000 last week to 61.7 million barrels, marking its first weekly decline in 2015. Last month, crude inventories at Cushing, the largest storage facility in the U.S., reached record levels amid cascading production at shale fields nationwide.
Since then, shale output has leveled off reducing fears that Cushing could reach full storage capacity by the start of the summer. Speaking at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York, Greenlight Capital CEO David Einhorn railed against fracking stocks, zeroing in on Irving, Texas-based Pioneer Natural Resource Co., an independent oil and gas company.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Senate reportedly forged ahead with debate on an Iranian nuclear bill increasing the likelihood that the bill could come up for vote later this week.
On Sunday, Politico reported that Republican leaders had moved close to thwarting Sen. Tom Cotton's (R, Arkansas) efforts to upend bipartisan legislation paving the way for passage of the bill. In a bit of surprise, Cotton proposed an amendment last week that would require Iran to disclose its nuclear history and close all of its nuclear facilities as part of the bill.
Last month, Reuters reported that Iran has 30 million barrels of oil stored in offshore tankers ready for export, after the Persian Gulf nation agreed on the framework of a nuclear deal with Western powers. In addition, Facts Global Energy, an energy consulting firm, has forecast that Iranian oil exports could reach a level of 1.7 million barrels per day within 12 months of a final deal up from it current level of a million bpd.
An outflow of Iranian could depress oil prices in a global market already saturated by a glut of supply.