Investing.com – WTI crude oil prices settled modestly higher after a monthly report showed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries increased output last month.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures for July delivery rose 0.39% to settle at $66.36 a barrel, while on London's Intercontinental Exchange, Brent fell 0.89% to trade at $75.78 a barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in its monthly report Tuesday, said there was "pronounced uncertainty" about the oil market this year.
"Recent developments in the oil market have led to pronounced uncertainty about the second half of the year," OPEC said in its monthly report.
OPEC also announced that oil output from members climbed by 35,000 barrels in May, to an average 31.87 million barrels a day (bpd). Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, ramped up production by 85,500 but that was offset somewhat by falling output in Nigeria, Venezuela and Libya, according to the OPEC report.
That differed from Saudi Arabia's own data showing output increased by 161,400 bpd to above 10 million bpd in May, from 9.9 million bpd the prior month. The uptick in Saudi output comes as investors remained concerned major oil producers could agree to ease limits on production at OPEC's meeting next week.
In November 2016, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by 1.8 million (bpd) to slash global inventories to the five year-average. The OPEC-led deal was renewed last year through 2018 and is expected to come under review at OPEC's meeting on June 22.
The OPEC monthly report arrived ahead of a fresh batch of U.S. inventory data from the Energy Information Administration due 10:30 ET Wednesday expected to show U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 2.744 million barrels last week.