Oil was also supported by a larger than expected fall in US crude inventories last week, down 5.8 million barrels compared with analysts' expectations for a 1.8 million barrels decline, according to industry group the American Petroleum Institute. [API/S]Global benchmark Brent futures LCOc1 were up 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $48.92 a barrel at 0612 GMT. Seven million barrels is roughly two days of oil imports into Japan, the world's fourth biggest importer. "Chief among [the] oil market's worries is that the renewed rise in US oil production is reducing the speed at which the supply surplus is being eroded," Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com, said in a note. Higher crude output from the United States should limit any upside to global oil prices through the end of 2018, the US government said on Tuesday.

Source: Egypt Independent May 10, 2017 06:45 UTC