Oil turns higher ahead of EIA weekly report

Oil prices turned higher as the US market opened on Wednesday, to head for the second straight daily gain, ahead of the US Energy Information Administration's official report later today.

US crude rose 0.8% to $63.59 a barrel, after opening at $63.07, and hit a low at $62.70, and Brent crude rose 0.6% to $66.98 a barrel, after opening at $66.56, and hit a low of $66.14.

US crude gained 1.8% yesterday, and Brent crude futures rose 1.3%, in their third gain out of 4 days, thanks to demand hopes in the US and Europe.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 4.3 million barrels during the week ending April 23, missing forecasts of a rise by 0.5 million barrels.

While the US Energy Information Administration's official data will be released later today, amid forecasts for inventories to drop by 0.9 million barrels.

The OPEC-Plus coalition decided on Wednesday to proceed with the gradual increase of oil production that was approved during the last meeting in early April.

Starting next May, the decision includes a hike of 1.15 million barrels per day distributed over 3 months, with an increase of 350,000 bpd in May, a similar increase in June, and 450,000 bpd in July.

Based on this decision, the current output cut will be reduced by 7.2 million barrels in April to 6.85 million barrels in May, and to 6.5 million barrels in June, and then to nearly 6 million barrels in July.

Saudi Arabia also stated that during that period it would also ease its 1 million bpd voluntary cut, and its production will increase by 250,000 barrels in May, then by 350,000 barrels in June, and by 400,000 barrels in July.