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Brent crude futures rose 6 cents, or 0.07%, to $82.83 a barrel
by 0953 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures
were flat at $77.87.
Geopolitical factors were also partly responsible for gains of
about 1% on Tuesday, with diplomatic deadlocks in the Middle
East and Russia-Ukraine conflicts offsetting expectations of a
deferred start to interest rate cuts in the United States.
"Currently events around Israel and Gaza, together with
Ukraine’s war against Russia, weighs more on sentiment than
disappointing U.S. inflation data," said PVM analyst Tamas Varga.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
said in its monthly report on Tuesday that global oil demand
will rise by 2.25 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2024 and by
1.85 million bpd in 2025. Both forecasts were unchanged from
last month.
The 2024 forecast is higher than that of other forecasters, such
as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and banks including
Morgan Stanley. The IEA releases its own monthly oil report on
Thursday.
OPEC's projection of a "nearly unquenchable thirst for oil in
2024 and 2025" trumped the somewhat conservative views of
others, Varga said.
U.S. gasoline and distillate fuel stockpiles plunged by 7.23
million barrels and 4.02 million barrels respectively in the
week to Feb. 9, according to data from the American Petroleum
Institute, both much larger declines than analysts expected.
At the same time, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by a much
larger than expected 8.52 million barrels as refinery downtime
cuts both crude consumption and fuel production.
Official inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration is due at 1530 GMT.
(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London, Laura Sanicola in New
York and Trixie Yap in SingaporeEditing by David Goodman)
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