Investing.com - Oil prices pushed higher on Tuesday, bouncing back from the prior session's losses amid speculation that OPEC could extend its production-cut deal beyond June if global crude inventories failed to drop to a targeted level.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude May contract rose 41 cents, or around 0.8%, to $49.32 a barrel by 6:30AM ET (10:30GMT), after falling 40 cents in the prior session.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for May delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London tacked on 41 cents to $52.03 a barrel. The global benchmark dipped 14 cents on Monday.
OPEC members increasingly favor extending the output curb beyond June to balance the market, sources within the group said, although they added that this would require non-OPEC members such as Russia to also step up their efforts.
OPEC agreed in November last year to curb its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day for the first six months of 2017. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC producers have agreed to jointly cut by an additional 600,000 barrels per day.
In total, they agreed to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day to 32.5 million, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
OPEC's latest monthly report showed global oil stocks in January rose to 278 million barrels above the five-year average.
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.
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 (20:30GMT) later on Tuesday. Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Wednesday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock rise of 2.6 million barrels.
Oil has fallen sharply this month amid concern that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for April added 1.8 cents, or 1.1%, to $1.628 a gallon, while April heating oil rose 1.6 cents to $1.530 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for April delivery jumped 3.7 cents to $3.078 per million British thermal units, as forecasts showing cooler weather on the way boosted the heating fuel.