By Roslan Khasawneh
SINGAPORE, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Oil prices were little changed
on Monday following steady gains in the previous week with
investors awaiting fresh clues over prospects for a trade deal
between the United States and China, shrugging off concerns over
steadily rising oil supplies.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 5 cents, or 0.1%, at
$63.25 by 0119 GMT. The contract rose 1.3% last week.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was at $57.72 a
barrel, unchanged from the previous session, having gained 0.8%
last week.
"Despite the larger-than-expected (U.S.) inventory build ...
traders stayed primarily focused on U.S.-Sino trade developments
where optimism continues to build," said Stephen Innes, market
strategist at AxiTrader. "The market sees a trade deal between
the U.S. and China as more feasible, which is bullish for oil."
The 16-month trade war between the world's two biggest
economies has slowed economic growth around the world and
prompted analysts to lower forecasts for oil demand, raising
concerns that a supply glut could develop in 2020.
China and United States had "constructive talks" on trade in
a high-level phone call on Saturday, state media Xinhua said,
but offered few other details in a report released on Sunday.
But a monthly report from the International Energy Agency
(IEA) put downward pressure on prices, after it estimated that
non-OPEC supply growth would grow to 2.3 million barrels per day
(bpd) next year compared, with 1.8 million bpd in 2019, citing
production from the United States, Brazil, Norway and Guyana.
Data released on Thursday also showed weekly U.S. crude
stockpiles grew by 2.2 million barrels, the Energy Information
Administration (EIA) said, exceeding the 1.649 million-barrel
rise forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll. EIA/S