* U.S. crude inventories fell 1.1 mln bbls last week - EIA
* Gasoline, distillates stockpiles rose - EIA
By Florence Tan
SINGAPORE, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Oil prices remained in
touching distance of three-month peaks on Thursday, extending a
robust streak that began a week ago, after data showed U.S.
crude inventories had dropped while output cuts by major
producers kept supply snug.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 edged down 1 cent to $66.16 a
barrel by 0224 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
crude CLc1 fell 3 cents to $60.90. Trading volume was thin,
with not even news of President Donald Trump's impeachment by
the U.S. House of Representatives stirring the oil market.
According to weekly data released by the Energy Information
Administration on Wednesday, U.S. crude inventories USOILC=ECI
dropped 1.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 13, while
gasoline and distillates stockpiles rose. "We're near the top of trading ranges for both Brent and WTI
so it's interesting to see them holding here," said Michael
McCarthy, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney.
While there is a clear uptrend in place on the daily
technical price chart for WTI to potentially move towards $61.50
a barrel, there are also near-term risks - touching that price
level may encourage traders to sell, McCarthy said.
"(Trading) volumes are terrible. A lot of people have given
up for the year with no scheduled events to push oil markets
around," he said.
The trend leaves oil prices set to rise for a third
consecutive week, surfing momentum from announcements this month
about deeper output cuts by major producers as well as the
'Phase One' deal between the United States and China to resolve
their long-running trade war.
The deal between the world's two largest economies has
improved the global economic outlook, lifted the prospect for
higher energy demand next year and underpinned oil prices.
Just the week before, the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers such as Russia
agreed to deepen production cuts by a further 500,000 barrels
per day (bpd) from Jan. 1 on top of previous reductions of 1.2
million bpd.