Crude futures prices held near flat Thursday after a government report showed a surprise increase in U.S. crude inventories despite an rise in refiners' production of fuel.
Light, sweet crude oil for April delivery recently traded three cents lower at $106.25 U.S. a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after hitting a fresh nine-month high earlier in the session.
Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded 23 cents U.S. higher at $122.67 U.S. a barrel.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said oil inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels last week, topping analysts' expectations calling for a 500,000-barrel increase.
The rise in stockpiles, coupled with a 1.5-percentage-point increase in refiners' capacity utilization, signalled that additional oil is available to meet demand.
Still, one expert said that concerns about Iran continue to keep a floor under prices, and have helped to prevent a retreat following weak government oil data in recent weeks.
Traders worry that a standoff between Iran and the West ahead of the European Union's coming Iranian oil embargo could disrupt some of that country's 3.5 million barrels a day of production from hitting the market.
Oil prices have surged over the past month, gaining 7.9% since the beginning of February on improving economic data and growing tensions between Iran and the West. Analysts are keeping close watch on oil-market data for any signals that high prices are cutting into demand or prompting refiners to increase their production of fuel products.
Late Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported in its own survey that crude supplies rose by 3.6 million barrels. The API also said refiners boosted their operations relative to capacity by 2.9 percentage points.
Front-month March reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, recently traded 0.63 cents U.S. higher at $3.0940 U.S. a gallon. March heating oil recently traded 0.48 cents U.S., or 0.8%, higher at $3.2772 U.S. a gallon.
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