WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Crude oil futures edged up marginally on Wednesday, with traders digesting data on U.S. crude inventory and reacting to weak retail sales and industrial production data from the U.S. and China, besides tracking news about recent sabotage of oil tankers near UAE.
The data from Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed an unexpected increase in U.S. crude stockpiles in the week to May 10.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for June ended up $0.24, at $62.02 a barrel.
On Tuesday, WTI crude futures for June ended up $0.74, or 1.2%, at $61.78 a barrel.
The data from EIA said crude stockpiles in the U.S. rose by 5.4 million barrels last week, beating expectations for a drop of 800,000 barrels.
Gasoline stockpiles were down by 1.1 million barrels in the week, while distillate fuel inventories increased by 84,000 barrels, the report from EIA said.
On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute released a report that showed U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 8.6 million barrels last week.
Meanwhile, a report from OPEC said 30.03 million barrels of crude oil per day were pumped in April, about 550,000 barrels per day less than in March, supported crude's uptick today.
The International Energy Agency in its monthly report has trimmed oil demand growth forecast for 2019 by 90,000 barrels a day to 1.3 million barrels, but said it expected the slower growth to be short-lived.
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