LONDON: Oil prices rose on Thursday after data showed U.S. crude inventories dropped and refinery demand was robust despite ample supply in the global oil market.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 4.3 million barrels last week, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), as refineries boosted throughput to a record level.
The data suggested demand in the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, was holding up well and still absorbing fuel at a time of ample global production.
Brent crude for August was up 75 cents at $57.80 a barrel by 0925 GMT. U.S. light crude, also known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, was up 60 cents at $52.01.
Olivier Jakob, head of Swiss energy consultancy Petromatrix, said U.S. oil demand remained very strong, driven by gasoline consumption, which was helping keep U.S. refineries working at full tilt through the northern hemisphere summer.
But the market might not be quite as well balanced later in the year when maintenance shuts some refineries.
"U.S. crude oil stocks are still at a high level and at risk of seeing increasing builds once refineries go in maintenance in the fall," Jakob said.
"The rest of the world is still pushing too much crude oil."
Oil prices have fallen steadily over the last two months and both crude benchmarks are now down more than 15 percent from their June peaks.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is producing around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) more crude than needed at the moment, analysts say, filling inventories worldwide and keeping markets under pressure.
OPEC oil supply may be about to rise as Iran increases output following a deal with six global powers over its nuclear programme.
Iran has some of the world's biggest oil reserves. It exported almost 3 million bpd of crude before Western sanctions but has been selling closer to 1 million bpd over the last 2-1/2 years.
The terms of the Iranian nuclear deal and many years of under-investment, however, mean it may take the Islamic Republic many months to increase its oil exports significantly.
"Although Iran has around 20 million barrels of oil in storage, some of it is needed for operational reasons domestically and is therefore not destined for export," energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said, adding that it could take Iran until the end of 2017 to increase production by as much as 600,000 bpd.
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