Investing.com – Crude futures settled higher on Tuesday, extending gains for the fourth-straight day as traders looked ahead to inventory data expected to show U.S. crude stockpiles fell for the third-straight week.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for August delivery rose 2% to settle at $44.24 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent added 1.98% to trade at $46.95 a barrel.
Crude prices extended gains from the previous session, as investors anticipated a fresh batch of inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute later today at 16:30 EDT, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration data at 10:30 EDT on Wednesday.
The EIA is expected to show U.S. crude stockpiles fell by roughly 2.6 million barrels.
"If we get another sizable draw-down this week, that could be supportive," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund. "We’ve got some very important weekly inventory numbers coming up."
Despite the higher settlement of crude futures for the fourth-straight day, overall sentiment remained fairly negative, as non-Opec output is expected to swell, reducing the effectiveness of Opec and its allies’ efforts to rebalance supply and demand in the market.
Earlier in June, the International Energy Agency predicted oil supplies from producers outside OPEC will grow by 1.5 million barrels a day in 2018, while the U.S. Energy Department said Monday, U.S. domestic crude oil output will increase to a record in 2018, surpassing 10 million barrels per day.