Oil futures are little changed Tuesday morning, ignoring gains in European equities and a firmer euro against the dollar, as the market waits for weekly U.S. oil-inventory statistics.
Traders are looking to see the impact of Tropical Storm Bonnie, which caused oil-production platforms to shut down in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of last week.
However, oil futures had been under pressure Monday morning before Wall Street gains turned around crude markets to leave the front-month U.S. oil future unchanged on the day.
Just before noon in London, the front-month September Brent contract on London's ICE futures exchange was 20 cents higher at $77.70 U.S. a barrel.
The front-month September contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was trading 23 cents higher at $79.23 U.S. a barrel.
The ICE's gas-oil contract for August delivery was 25 cents higher at $655.50 U.S. a metric ton, while Nymex gasoline for August delivery was 0.65 cent up at $2.1123 U.S. a gallon.
"When you look at last week's stock data in the U.S., it looks like refineries are producing more, but just putting the products into storage," said Christophe Barret, global oil analyst at Credit Agricole.
But oil prices have been held in a $75-to-$80-a-barrel trading range since July 22 as strong U.S. company earnings and benign stress-test results on European banks dispelled some fears of a double-dip recession.
"The large speculators are holding long positions on the basis of a positive economic outlook and expected longer-term demand, especially from China," said Glen Ward, head of retail derivatives at London Capital Group.
There are also some bullish factors currently in play in global oil markets.
In Europe, Dated Brent, the physical benchmark in the North Sea, traded a record high differential price Monday amid tight supplies.
In Asia, one of the region's largest refineries, the Formosa refinery in Taiwan, has shutdown after a fire.
Meanwhile, the Association of Petroleum Institute, a trade body, publishes its U.S. oil statistics for the week ended July 23 after the close of business Tuesday.
The more-influential U.S. Department of Energy statistics are released at 2:30 p.m. in London, and are expected to show crude stockpiles will fall by 1.4 million barrels, according to the mean of six analysts' forecasts.
Gasoline inventories are seen rising by 600,000 barrels, according to the analysts' average. Stocks of distillate, which includes heating oil and diesel, are expected to rise by 1.9 million barrels.
