Oil prices down in Asian trade

Oil prices fell in Asia today after a five-day rally but losses were tempered by a surprisingly upbeat US supply report, analysts said. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery fell 17 cents to USD 56.22 while Brent crude for June slipped 44 cents to USD 62.88 in late-morning trade.

Today WTI jumped USD 3.10 to USD 56.39, its highest closing price since December 23, while Brent crude for May shot up USD 1.89 to USD 60.32 on its last day of trading.

Analysts said prices remained supported by the official US stockpiles report today. The Department of Energy (DoE) said crude inventories rose by 1.29 million barrels in the week to April 10, much lower than the surge expected by analysts. Rises in US reserves are indicative of slack demand in the world's top crude consumer.

"Compared to past weeks of over 10 million, this miniature increment hints at some changes in fundamentals," said Daniel Ang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

The DoE also said US oil production fell by 20,000 barrels, or 0.2 percent, to 9.38 million barrels per day, in the week ending April 10.

Analysts said the decline should help ease the global crude oversupply, which led to a collapse in prices of more than 50 percent between June and January.

"Although we hope for much lower production, keeping production at 9.4 million barrels a day is a start," said Ang."Moving forward, we do not see any more increase in US crude production," he added.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) today cut its supply forecast for non-OPEC countries, citing a lower outlook for US and Canadian output and the "worsening conflict" in Yemen.

The agency also bumped up by 90,000 barrels per day its forecast for 2015 petroleum demand. The IEA now expects 2015 consumption of 93.6 million barrels per day, up 1.1 million barrels per day for the year.