Oil edged up on Tuesday ahead of the release of U.S. crude inventory data, which in recent weeks has provided bullish surprises, but comments by OPEC members regarding chances of an output cut kept a lid on prices.
Brent crude oil futures was up 21 cents at $51.67 per barrel by 1100 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures turned positive, gaining 30 cents to $50.82.
The American Petroleum Institute is due to publish weekly crude stocks estimates at 2030 GMT, followed by the official Energy Information Administration data due on Wednesday.
“Crude oil does not want to drop the support until it sees if it can use the weekly U.S. statistics for another test of an upside break-out,” analysts at Petromatrix said in a note.
U.S. crude inventories were seen to have risen last week by 800,000 barrels to 469.5 million barrels, compared with a 5 million barrel fall in the previous week.
