Investing.com - Oil prices extended overnight losses in North American trading on Tuesday, falling to the lowest level in more than a week as investors 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 drop of 1.5 million barrels.
Last week's numbers showed U.S. output helped boost crude inventories to record highs, feeding concerns about a global glut.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude May contract fell 38 cents, or around 0.7%, to $52.27 a barrel by 8:00AM ET (12:00GMT), after falling to an overnight low of $52.14, the cheapest since April 7.
The U.S. benchmark lost 53 cents on Monday, pressured lower by news that U.S. shale oil output was expected to post the biggest monthly rise in more than two years in May.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for June delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London shed 49 cents to $54.87 a barrel. The global benchmark declined 53 cents a day earlier.
U.S. drillers last week added rigs for the 13th week in a row, data from energy services company Baker Hughes showed, extending a 10-month drilling recovery.
That brought the total count to 683, the most since September 2015, underlining concern that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
OPEC agreed in November last year to curb its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day between January and June. 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 for the first six months of the year, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
A joint committee of ministers from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers will meet in late April to present its recommendation on the fate of the pact. A final decision on whether or not to extend the deal beyond June will be taken by the oil cartel on May 25.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures for May dipped 1.7 cents, or 1%, to $1.704 a gallon, while May heating oil slumped 1.2 cents to $1.620 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for May delivery lost 3.2 cents to $3.131 per million British thermal units.