Investing.com - Crude prices were largely unchanged in early dealings on Wednesday, holding below their highest level since late 2014, as investors looked ahead to weekly data from the U.S. on stockpiles of crude and refined products to gauge the strength of demand in the world’s largest energy consumer.
Industry group the American Petroleum Institute is due to release its weekly report at 4:30PM ET (2130GMT). Official data from the Energy Information Administration will be released Thursday, amid forecasts for an oil-stock drop of around 3.6 million barrels, which would mark the ninth-straight fall.
The reports come out one day later than usual due to the Martin Luther King Day holiday on Monday.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures tacked on 8 cents to $63.81 a barrel by 3:45AM ET (0845GMT). It rose to its highest since Dec. 2014 at $64.89 on Monday.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., were at $69.22 a barrel, up 7 cents from their last close. The contract reached $70.37 on Monday, its best level since Dec. 2014.
Oil prices ended lower on Tuesday as the market weighed rising U.S. drilling activity against ongoing efforts by major producers to cut output to reduce a global glut.
Analysts and traders have recently warned that U.S. shale oil producers could ramp up production in the coming weeks as they look to take advantage of higher prices, potentially derailing an OPEC-led effort to curb excess supply.
Futures have added around 13% since early December, benefiting from production cut efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia. The producers agreed in December to extend current oil output cuts until the end of 2018.
The deal to cut oil output by 1.8 million barrels a day (bpd) was adopted last winter by OPEC, Russia and nine other global producers. The agreement was due to end in March 2018, having already been extended once.
Oil traders are looking ahead to monthly reports from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties and the International Energy Agency due later this week to assess global oil supply and demand levels.
The data will give traders a better picture of whether a global rebalancing is taking place in the oil market.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures were steady at $1.840 a gallon, while heating oil was flat at $2.063 a gallon.
Natural gas futures inched up 1.8 cents, or 0.6%, to $3.147 per million British thermal units.