Investing.com - Oil prices traded higher on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia cut production by more than originally thought and traders awaited weekly data on U.S. output.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude futures gained 36 cents, or 0.54% to $67.56 a barrel by 11:20 AM ET (15:20 GMT).
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., rose 42 cents, or 0.58%, to $73.03.
Reports on Tuesday indicated that Saudi Arabia communicated to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that it had reduced output by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July to 10.29 million bdp, despite a June agreement with the cartel to increase production in order to cover shortfalls from outages and sanctions on Iran.
In its monthly report, OPEC, using secondary sources, had calculated Monday that the kingdom’s daily production was a higher 10.39 million barrels last month.
Investors will also be keeping an eye on supplies stateside as the American Petroleum Institute releases its weekly stockpiles numbers later on Tuesday.
Official crude inventory data from the Energy Information Administration will be released on Wednesday amid expectations for a drawdown of 2.667 million barrels.
In other energy trading, gasoline futures advanced 0.70% to $2.0412 a gallon by 11:21 AM ET (15:21 GMT), while heating oil gained 0.36% to $2.1448 a gallon.
Lastly, natural gas futures traded up 1.40% to $2.971 per million British thermal units.