Investing.com - Oil prices extended strong overnight gains amid thinning pre-New Year holiday trade on Wednesday, less than a week before major global oil producers begin to scale back production in line with the deal they struck last month.
Trading is expected to remain thin this week ahead of the New Year holiday.
Crude oil for February delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange tacked on 21 cents, or 0.39%, to $54.11 a barrel by 4:20AM ET (09:20GMT), after climbing 88 cents, or 1.66%, a day earlier.
New York-traded oil prices touched a one-and-a-half-year peak of $54.51 on December 12
Elsewhere, Brent oil for March delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London inched up 20 cents, or 0.35%, to $57.03 a barrel, adding to the prior session's gain of 93 cents, or 1.66%.
London-traded Brent futures recorded a 17-month high of $57.89 earlier this month.
OPEC members agreed to reduce output by a combined 1.2 million barrels per day starting from January 1, their first such deal since 2008.
The pact was followed by an agreement from 11 non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, to cut their supplies by 558,000 barrels a day, bringing the total to almost 1.8 million barrels per day.
In a sign that the world's major oil producers may abide by their agreement, OPEC member Venezuela said it will cut 95,000 barrels per day of oil production in the new year.
Meanwhile, the members of an OPEC and non-OPEC committee formed to monitor the market may meet on January 13, two sources said, which may give an early indication of compliance with the deal.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for February added 0.4 cents, or 0.25% to $1.658 a gallon, while February heating oil tacked on 0.5 cents, or 0.35%, to $1.723 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for February delivery slumped 6.5 cents, or 1.75%, to $3.701 per million British thermal units.