Oil futures edged higher on Tuesday, buoyed by expectations that this week’s U.S. government reports will reveal a further cut in domestic supplies of crude oil, according to Bloomberg MarketWatch.
The September contract for West Texas Intermediate crude oil which expired at Tuesday’s settlement, rose 27 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $47.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The new front-month October contract advanced 30 cents, or 0.6%, to finish at $47.83 a barrel.
October Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose 21 cents, or 0.4%, to end trading at $51.87 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
“OPEC punted at their technical meeting and put off a decision to extend [the production curb agreement] until their November meeting,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group.
The American Petroleum Institute will issue its weekly supply data late Tuesday, while the Energy Information Administration’s report will be released Wednesday morning. Last week, the EIA reported an 8.9 million-barrel drop in crude supplies—the largest drop in nearly a year.
Analysts polled by S&P Global Platts expect the EIA to report another decline for the week ending August 18. On average, they forecast a fall of 3.7 million barrels.
Back on the New York Mercantile Exchange, September natural gas dropped 2.3 cents, or 0.8%, to settle at $2.939 per million British thermal units.