Oil climbs for fourth session ahead of US inventory data

Oil prices kept their gains in American trade on hopes of market balance by the first half of next year, while analysts expected US crude stocks to hit another two-year low, with Brent surging past $65 a barrel for the first time since mid-2015 after the North Sea supplies were disrupted in Britain. 

As of 13:10 GMT, US West Texas Intermediate rose to $58.45 a barrel from the opening of $58.00, while Brent advanced to $65.55 a barrel from the opening of $64.69. 

US crude rose 1.2% yesterday while Brent added 2.2% in the third daily profit in a row. 

Goldman Sachs raised their projections for US crude prices in 2018 to $57.5 a barrel from $55, and for Brent to $62 a barrel from $58, as global inventories are expected to recede after OPEC's extension of the output cut deal.

OPEC asserted that it's possible to draw up a strategy to exit the global production deal in the June 2018 in case market oversupply was sapped up. 

Later today, the American Petroleum Institute will release initial data on US crude stocks, expected to drop for the second week to a new two-year low, while the EIA will release the official data tomorrow. 

A major pipeline in the North sea was closed, stopping 400 thousand bpd from been shifted to near Edinburgh, buoying Brent futures sharply in the last couple of days.