2018.11.1415:21:00UTC+00Oil Snaps 12-day Losing Streak, Ends Higher Ahead Of Inventory Data

After twelve successive days of declines, crude oil futures managed to close on a positive note on Wednesday, with traders looking ahead to the official crude inventory data from U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The EIA will release the data on Thursday morning, a day later this time, due to a holiday on Monday for Veterans Day. The American Petroleum Institute will release its weekly oil report later today.

Data from EIA last week showed U.S. crude stockpiles to have increased for seven successive weeks. Six of those increases were much bigger than what analysts had forecast.

The consistent increase in U.S. crude output and the U.S. government's decision to allow eight top oil buyers, including India and China to continue importing Iranian oil even after sanctions against Iran came into force from November 4, resulted in oil's continuous decline.

After settling at near 12-month low of $55.69 a barrel on Tuesday, crude oil futures for December edged higher today and settled at $56.25 a barrel, gaining $0.56, or 1%, for the session.

On Sunday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told reporters at the meeting in Abu Dhabi that the kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter, plans to reducer oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day in December.

OPEC-non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee reportedly debated over whether it would be necessary to reduce output by one million barrels a day next year to prevent a market glut, but there was no consensus as yet among oil producers about cutting production.

However, according to very recent reports, OPEC and its partners are discussing a proposal to cut oil output by 1.4 million barrels per day. The reports also suggest that Russia is unlikely to be on board for such a large reduction.

The U.S. President Donald Trump had earlier this week urged OPEC and Saudi Arabia to maintain their current policy of gradually increasing output in order to cap oil prices.