Investing.com - Oil prices edged lower on Thursday, after U.S. government data revealed a weekly climb in domestic production to the highest level in over two years.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures shed 20 cents, or around 0.4%, to $51.94 a barrel by 3:35AM ET (0735GMT), after rising 26 cents in the previous session to just below a five-month high.
Meanwhile, Brent crude futures, the benchmark for oil prices outside the U.S., dipped 37 cents, or about 0.6%, to $57.20 a barrel, moving further away from a 26-month peak reached earlier this week.
Oil prices ended higher on Wednesday, as investors digested weekly supply data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Crude oil inventories fell by 1.8 million barrels, according to the EIA, after posting hefty increases in each of the last three weeks, as refiners raised output following Hurricane Harvey last month.
However, gasoline stockpiles were up 1.1 million barrels for the week, rising for the first time in four weeks.
The report also showed that domestic crude production edged up by 0.4% to 9.55 million last week, the highest level since July 2015.
Prices have been well-supported in recent weeks amid growing optimism that the crude market was well on its way towards rebalancing as data showed strong compliance from major producers with their supply cut agreement.
In May, OPEC and non-OPEC members led by Russia agreed to extend production cuts of 1.8 million barrels per day for a period of nine months until March 2018 in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.
Elsewhere on Nymex, gasoline futures were little changed at $1.602 a gallon, while heating oil slumped 1.5 cents, or 0.8%, to $1.824 a gallon.
Natural gas futures held steady at $3.059 per million British thermal units, as traders looked ahead to weekly storage data due later in the global day.