Investing.com - Oil prices held near the prior session’s seven-month highs in European trade on Wednesday, amid speculation weekly supply data due later in the session will show U.S. crude inventories fell for the second straight week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 14:30GMT, or 10:30AM ET, amid expectations for a drop of 2.9 million barrels.
Gasoline stockpiles are expected to fall by 150,000 barrels while stocks of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, are expected to drop by 642,000 barrels, according to analysts.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said that U.S. oil inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels in the week ended May 13.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI rose by 508,000 barrels, the API said, while gasoline inventories decreased by 1.9 million barrels and distillate inventories declined by 2.0 million barrels.
Crude oil for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange dipped 11 cents, or 0.23%, to trade at $48.20 a barrel by 07:55GMT, or 3:55AM ET.
A day earlier, New York-traded oil futures rallied to $48.76, the most since October 12, amid mounting concerns over global supply disruptions.
Oil prices have been well-supported in recent weeks due to a combination of Nigerian, Libyan and Venezuelan supply outages, declining U.S. shale output and reduced production of Canadian crude as a result of fires in Alberta's oil sands region.
Nymex oil prices are up nearly 80% since falling to 13-year lows at $26.05 on February 11.
Elsewhere, on the ICE Futures Exchange in London, Brent oil for July delivery slipped 20 cents, or 0.41%, to $49.08 a barrel. On Tuesday, London-traded Brent futures jumped to $49.75, a level not seen since November 4.
Brent futures prices are up by roughly 85% since briefly dropping below $30 a barrel in mid-February, despite the collapse of talks at a Doha summit in April aimed at achieving a production freeze among OPEC and Non-OPEC producers. OPEC meets on June 2 in Vienna and may discuss the freeze initiative again.
Meanwhile, Brent's premium to the WTI crude contract stood at 88 cents a barrel, compared to a gap of 97 cents by close of trade on Tuesday.