Investing.com - Oil prices edged lower in North American trading on Tuesday, surrendering overnight gains after a report showed OPEC's oil production jumped in May, despite the exporter group agreeing last month to extend its six-month deal to cap output into 2018.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude July contract was at $45.91 a barrel by 7:50AM ET (1150GMT), down 16 cents, or around 0.4%.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for August delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 12 cents to $48.17 a barrel.
Oil prices settled higher for the second-straight session on Monday.
OPEC’s output rose by 336,100 barrels per day to 32.14 million barrels in May, led largely by increases from Libya, Nigeria and Iraq, according to the cartel’s closely watched monthly market report.
The report underscored the fragility of the cartel’s agreement with other big producers to cut output and stabilize a slumping market.
Last month, OPEC and some non-OPEC producers extended a deal to cut 1.8 million barrels per day in supply until March 2018.
So far, the production-cut agreement has had little impact on global inventory levels due to a relentless increase in U.S. shale oil output.
U.S. drillers last week added rigs for the 21st week in a row, the longest such streak on record, implying that further gains in domestic production are ahead.
The U.S. rig count rose by 8 to 741, extending a year-long drilling recovery to the highest level since April 2015.
Investors now looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (2030GMT) later on Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 2.9 million barrels.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for July inched down 0.4 cents, or about 0.3%, to $1.480 a gallon, while July heating oil shed 0.4 cents to $1.421 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for July delivery climbed 3.0 cents to $3.054 per million British thermal units.