Investing.com - Oil prices edged lower in European trading on Wednesday, staying close to the prior session's four-week trough after data overnight showed a surprise gain in U.S. crude supplies.
The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude June contract shed 21 cents, or around 0.4%, to $49.35 a barrel by 4:00AM ET (08:00GMT).
The U.S. benchmark settled higher for the first time in seven sessions on Tuesday after hitting its weakest level since March 29 at $48.87.
Elsewhere, Brent oil for July delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London dipped 17 cents to $52.40 a barrel after sliding to $51.30 in the prior session, its deepest trough since March 28.
After markets closed Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute said that U.S. oil inventories unexpectedly rose by 897,000 barrels in the week ended April 21.
The API report also showed a gain of 4.4 million barrels in gasoline stocks, widely missing an expected fall, while distillate stocks declined by a less-than-forecast 36,000 barrels.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its official weekly oil supplies report at 10:30AM ET (14:30GMT) Wednesday. There are often sharp divergences between the API estimates and the official figures from EIA.
If the build is confirmed, it would be the first increase after two consecutive drawdowns.
Crude has been under heavy selling pressure in recent days amid fears that an ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
U.S. drillers last week added rigs for the 14th week in a row, data from energy services company Baker Hughes showed on Friday, extending a 10-month drilling recovery. That brought the total count to 688, the most since September 2015.
The increase in U.S. output has overshadowed pledged output cuts by major producers. In November last year, OPEC and other producers, including Russia agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day between January and June, but so far the move has had little impact on inventory levels.
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 June inched down 0.2 cents, or about 0.1%, to $1.605 a gallon, while June heating oil slipped 0.4 cents to $1.545 a gallon.
Natural gas futures for June delivery tacked on 2.1 cents to $3.186 per million British thermal units.