Investing.com - Oil prices turned lower during North American morning hours on Thursday, as an overnight bounce lost steam amid ongoing concerns over a global supply glut.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude April contract shed 13 cents, or around 0.3%, to $48.73 a barrel by 9:45AM ET (13:45GMT), pulling back from a session high of $49.62.
The U.S. benchmark rallied $1.14, or about 2.4%, on Wednesday, snapping a seven-session losing streak after government data showed U.S. crude supplies fell for the first time in ten weeks.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for May delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 11 cents to $51.70 a barrel. The global benchmark reached a daily peak of $52.65 earlier.
Sentiment improved after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude oil inventories declined by a surprising 237,000 barrels last week to 528.2 million barrels. It was the first drawdown in stockpiles since early January.
The weaker dollar after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates as expected and took a less hawkish stance than anticipated also helped to make the greenback-denominated crude less expensive for holders of other currencies.
However, lingering fears over swelling global supplies pressured prices.
Oil tumbled to the lowest level since November at the start of the week after a report showed Saudi Arabia raised output back above 10 million barrels a day in February, underlining concerns over a global supply glut.
January 1 marked the official start of the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC member countries such as Russia in November last year to reduce output by almost 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million for the next six months, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
Kuwait is scheduled to host a ministerial meeting on March 26 comprising both OPEC and non-OPEC members to review compliance with the output agreement and to discuss whether cuts would be extended beyond June.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for April held steady at $1.588 a gallon, while April heating oil dipped 0.5 cents to $1.506 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for April delivery declined 6.7 cents to $2.914 per million British thermal units.