Oil edges up with Wall Street; rising crude supply checks gains

NEW YORK: Oil prices edged higher in choppy trade on Thursday, supported by a pickup in equity markets but pressured by expectations that crude supply will exceed demand later this year.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 27 cents to $61.23 a barrel, a 0.4 percent gain, by 12:54 p.m. EST (1654 GMT). Brent crude futures rose 20 cents to $65.09 a barrel, a 0.3 percent gain.

Oil rose in tandem with a pickup in U.S. stock markets . Crude futures have moved in sync with equities uninterruptedly for the past 99 trading days, the longest such stretch in two years. The S&P 500 stock index rose about 0.15 percent.

Prices bounced around after the United States announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and groups, including Moscow's intelligence services and a Russian propaganda organization.

"The rising tensions between the West and Russia raise the potential for reduced trade flows and economic activity, which would diminish energy demand growth," said John Kilduff, partner at investment manager Again Capital in New York.

Rising global oil demand, along with supply constraints from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has helped keep oil above $60 a barrel.

The International Energy Agency said global crude demand would pick up this year, but also noted rising supply.

The IEA report "is definitely constructive as the rebalance continues to play out, said Nick Holmes, a director and investment analyst at Tortoise Capital in Leawood, Kansas.

"The negative aspect, and we continue to see this month-over-month is everybody continues to revise their U.S. supply forecasts higher."

OPEC on Wednesday raised its forecast for non-member oil supply this year to almost double the growth predicted four months ago.

OPEC and other producers led by Russia began cutting supply in January 2017 to erase a global crude glut that had built up since 2014. This has been somewhat offset by surging U.S. crude production.

The IEA believes non-OPEC supply, led by the United States, will grow by 1.8 million bpd this year, while demand will grow by about 1.5 million bpd.

The relentless climb in U.S. crude output has loomed over markets, as production hit another record last week at 10.38 million bpd.