Investing.com - Crude oil held weaker in Asia Wednesday after manufacturing data from China came in mixed as investors look to stocks estimates from the U.S. later in the day and await the start of an OPEC meeting in Vienna on Thursday.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude for July delivery fell 0.14% to 49.03 a barrel. On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Brent crude rose 0.40% to $49.76 a barrel.
The Caixin manufacturing PMI came in at 49.2, below the 49.3 expected, and down from the previous 49.4.
Earlier in China the semi-official CFLP manufacturing PMI for May came in a bit higher than expected at 50.1, unchanged from the previous month. The non-manufacturing PMI for May came in at 53.1, down from 53.5 the previous month.
Estimates of crude and refined product stocks in the U.S. as of last week will be released on WEednesday evening by the American Petroleum Institute, a day late because of the Memorial Day holiday. On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy will releases its figures.
Overnight, crude futures fell slightly on Tuesday on a volatile day of trading, as investors reacted to across-the-board production and inventory declines worldwide, as well as bearish comments from the United Arab Emirates' oil minister.
Crude prices received a boost on Tuesday after industry research group Genscape said inventories at the Cushing Oil Hub in Oklahoma fell by 686,600 last week.
Despite the considerable draw, stockpiles at the nation's largest storage facility still remain near full capacity. It came days after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said commercial crude inventories nationwide fell by 4.2 million barrels for the week ending on May 20 in comparison with the previous week. Cushing is the main delivery point of Nymex oil.
Earlier, a survey from Reuters showed that OPEC output fell mildly by 120,000 barrels per day in May to 32.52 million bpd, driven by widespread production slowdowns in Nigeria. At the same time, the declines were limited by higher monthly production in May by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Investors also reacted to reports that Iraq could ship an additional 5 million barrels of oil in June, rebounding from a dry spell this month spurred by a series of power outages at facilities in Southern Iraq. Iraq's main rivals in Saudi Arabia and Iran are both expected to ramp up production over the summer months, according to reports.
Crude futures, though, turned negative late in the session after UAE oil minister Suhail Al Mazroui said the oil market has been correcting upwards of late and that he is happy with the market's current state. The comments ahead of Thursday's semi annual OPEC meeting in Vienna ostensibly lower the probability that the world's largest oil cartel will enact a comprehensive production freeze aimed at stabilizing the prolonged rout in oil prices.