Investing.com - Oil prices edged lower early on Thursday, after rising more than 1% to four-week high in the prior session, as investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products to weigh what the impact of Harvey was on supply and demand.
Market focus was also being drawn to Hurricane Irma, a record Category 5 storm, which could potentially hit different parts of Florida.
Two other tropical storms in the Atlantic, Jose and Katia, were declared hurricanes late on Wednesday.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude October contract was at $49.05 a barrel by 3:10AM ET (0710GMT), down 11 cents, or around 0.2%. It rose to its best level since Aug. 10 at $49.42 in the prior session.
Meanwhile, Brent oil for November delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 15 cents, or about 0.3%, to $54.05 a barrel. It touched a more than three-month peak of $54.31 a day earlier.
Oil prices ended higher on Wednesday to notch their fourth-winning session in a row as demand picked up after U.S. refineries started to resume operations.
Concerns about a potential hit to production along the Gulf coast from Hurricane Irma provided further support.
Looking ahead, the U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report at 11:00AM ET (1500GMT). Analysts expect crude oil inventories rose by around 4.0 million barrels at the end of last week.
Meanwhile, gasoline supplies are seen decreasing by 5.0 million barrels and distillates are forecast to fall 3.0 million barrels.
After markets closed Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories rose by about 2.8 million barrels in the week ended September 1.
However, the API report also showed a drop of 2.5 million barrels in gasoline stocks, while distillate stocks fell by 600,000 barrels.
The data was published a day later than usual due to Monday’s Labor Day holiday.
There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
Meanwhile, gasoline futures shed 0.8 cents, or about 0.5%, to $1.662 a gallon, as fears of a serious supply crunch continued to fade.
Elsewhere, natural gas futures for October delivery tacked on 2.4 cents, or 0.8%, to $3.024 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the global day.