Investing.com - Oil prices rose to a two-week high during European trading on Wednesday, adding to the prior session's strong gains as market players awaited fresh weekly information on U.S. stockpiles of crude and refined products, while renewed optimism over an output cut by major global oil producers continued to boost sentiment.
Crude oil for December delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange touched an intraday high of $46.18 a barrel, the most since November 2. It was last at $45.95 by 2:55AM ET (07:55GMT), after surging 5.75% the day before, its biggest daily percentage gain in seven months.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for January delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London tacked on 17 cents, or 0.36%, to $47.12 a barrel after rising to a two-week high of $47.37 earlier. It rallied 5.67% in the prior session.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 10:30AM ET (15:30GMT) Wednesday, amid analyst expectations for an increase of 1.480 million barrels.
Gasoline inventories are expected to fall by 416,000 barrels while stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, are forecast to drop by 1.729 million barrels.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories increased by 3.65 million barrels in the week ended November 11, above market expectations.
The API report also showed a decline of 160,000 barrels in gasoline stocks, while distillates showed a surprise gain of 3.0 million barrels on the week.
Meanwhile, oil traders continued to weigh prospects of a coordinated production cut among major global oil producers.
An informal meeting of OPEC members is likely to be convened in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Friday to build consensus over decisions taken by the group in September, an Algerian energy source said on Wednesday.
Prices rallied on Tuesday amid reports that several OPEC members were engaged in a last-minute push to overcome divisions between the cartel’s biggest producers.
The oil group reached an agreement to cap output to a range of 32.5 million to 33.0 million barrels per day in talks held in Algeria in late September. However, OPEC said it won’t finalize details on individual output quotas until its next official meeting in Vienna on November 30.
The cartel pumped 33.64 million barrels of crude per day in October. The figures added to skepticism over the implementation of a planned deal by OPEC to limit production.
The possibility that producers could walk away empty-handed from the November meeting looms large after Iraq, Iran, Nigeria and Libya all signaled they might not take part in the proposed production cut deal. Russia’s unclear stance is also fueling uncertainty.