NEW YORK: Oil prices edged lower on Wednesday before the US releases its weekly petroleum inventory report after an industry group said weekly US crude stockpiles rose beyond expectations and a strong dollar weighed on commodities. Brent futures were down 28 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $46.67 a barrel by 10:09 a.m. EST (1509 GMT). US crude fell 32 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $45.49 per barrel.
Both contracts gained almost 6 percent on Tuesday on news the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would renew efforts to limit production. A strong dollar also weighed on oil, with the index measured against a basket of currencies hitting a near 14-year high on Wednesday.
Weekly US crude oil stocks surged by 3.6 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute (API) industry group said, exceeding analyst expectations of a 1.5 million barrel rise.
"Prices are down on the build in US crude oil stocks reported by the API last night," said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.
The US Energy Information Administration will release its weekly petroleum status report at 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday.
The build dampened Tuesday's rally on news that OPEC members were meeting ahead of an official group gathering on Nov. 30 to build consensus for a deal to limit output, and by oil pipeline attacks by militants in Nigeria.
A number of energy ministers from OPEC countries are likely to meet informally in Doha on Friday to try to build consensus over decisions taken by the full group in September in Algiers, an Algerian energy source said.
Those informal meetings could include energy ministers from Saudi Arabia and Russia. But Iran's oil minister will not be attending, sending the country's OPEC governor instead, sources said.
"Key in this regard will be talks between the Saudis and Russia...We see enough cooperation between these two oil power houses to keep a significant amount of OPEC premium embedded in the market," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note. Dutch bank ABN Amro, meanwhile, lowered its oil price forecasts on Wednesday, expecting Brent and US crude to average $50 a barrel in the fourth quarter.
"We estimate the possibility of an actual OPEC production cut as 50-50," said Hans van Cleef, senior energy economist at ABN Amro.
In a bullish signal for the oil market, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday oil consumption will peak no sooner than 2040 despite the entering into force of the Paris climate deal which intends to wean the world off fossil fuels by the end of the century.
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