Oil Futures Little Changed Despite Higher US Crude Stockpile Data

Oil futures are little changed in Asian trading Wednesday, after the American Petroleum Institute's data showed bigger-than-expected gains in U.S. crude oil stockpiles and larger declines in gasoline.

--October Nymex light, sweet crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange was recently up 1 cent at $48.24 a barrel in the Globex trading session. November Brent fell 0.2% on London's ICE Futures at $54.14 and October gasoline eases 0.2% at $1.6527 a gallon.

--The API, an industry group, said late Tuesday that its own data for the week showed a 6.2-million-barrel increase in crude supplies, as well as a 7.9-million-barrel fall in gasoline stocks.

--FocusEconomics says signs point to an improved oil market, as U.S. refineries resume operations after recent hurricanes, as well as increased processing by European and Asian refineries to compensate for the partial shutdowns of late. It also cited reports that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may extend a production cap agreement beyond next March was also supportive to prices.

Write to Biman Mukherji at biman.mukherji@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 13, 2017 00:47 ET (04:47 GMT)